Shattered mind
by metaldragon75767
Summary: Knuckles is startng to loose his mind through lonlyness, and seekes out Rouge, but shadow is after her too. When knuckles begins to have feelings for Shadow, he blames it on his madness, but then something happenes that noone is prepared for.lemon.knuxXRo
1. Chapter 1

' Screw the emerald' thought Knuckles, as he marched away from the jewel that had stolen most of his life away from him, as well as his love. ' What has it ever done for me? I don't care anymore, I'm finding her, no matter what it does'. Then he stopped, frowned, backtracked, and went back to sitting on the emerald shrine steps. ' Who am I kidding? If I ever left the emerald and it was captured, the chaos emeralds would fall out of control and all mayhem would break loose'. He slouched on the emerald. Sitting on the steps for a few more moments, before standing up again and shouting to no one in particular " What are you doing? I can't forget Rouge!". He sat again " The emerald is more important than anything, you know that" he said. Sighing he buried his face in his hands, before removing them again and shouting " Who asked you!". He growled and said " Great, now I'm arguing with myself". He once again took a seat. " You started it" he muttered under his breath. Knuckles shot up again and yelled " I did not!". He frowned and growled, before throwing his head up into the sky and shouting " SHUT UP!".

Knuckles face dropped. He began to realise just how lonely he was. Stuck on the island, doing nothing except sit in front of the emerald, day after day, year after year. How the time had passed, he didn't know. He missed his friends. He missed Tails, Amy, the Chaotix crew, dare he say it? He even missed Sonic. That irritating hedgehog was constantly annoying him, but he was still good natured and caring and a good best friend. But most of all, he missed Rouge. They had been so close when he had left her, but the emerald had been calling in his mind, softly at first, reminding him of his duty. But after a while its whispers turned to nagging and after almost shouting, just when their lips had almost touched. The sound had almost deafened him and he had run away, cursing and crying, before returning to the emerald, whimpering to himself for days after. Since then , he hadn't seen her, or anyone and, once again, his solitary nature began to take a toll on him. He would often think he could see a silhouette of his father, Locke, standing over to the hill, his thick locks flowing gently on the evening breeze, his beard dancing in the wind. Other he swear he heard his mother calling, or the rattling sound of Tails plane, come by with Sonic just to say hi.

But after rushing up there as fast as his legs could carry him, Knuckles had realised no one was there. He would search for hours on end to see if he could find whoever his mind had conjured up. And when they failed to make themselves present, Knuckles would resentfully turn on himself, shouting abusive insults from one end of his brain to the other, and of course never winning. One time, Knuckles had taken his heavy fist to his skull, cracking open his head in an effort to try and prize the images of his friends and family out of there.

Knuckles sighed in defeat. The arguments and images had been getting worse lately. He had to find someone to talk to. He had to find Rouge.

AUTHORS NOTES

It's short I know, but it will get better trust me. And longer. Please R+R and keep reading!


	2. A couple is born

" Thanks for asking me here Rouge, I guess I really should get out more" said Shadow. He was relaxing on the bench outside the resteraunt he had just been too with the bat theif . Rouge shrugged and said

" No problem Shadow, I need to get to know you better". She leaned on her hand, two of her fingers up against her check. Shadow couldn't help but let out a smile. Rouge wasn't the tarty seld obsessed bat she seemed to be on the outside, he had realised that for a while. But lately, there sister/brother relationship had begun to change, into something, new, different. The change scared Shadow, but at the same time excited him. It seemed for the first time Rouges features were revealed to him , bought out from the shadow they had been hidding under for so long. He realised he adored her buetiful white fur, that shown with glory in the sun and glinted with a sliver hue in the moonlight. Her surrounding black wings, although in the appearance of something sinister, made her seem as an angel. Her elegent ears curving smoothly over her head. But the thing he had began to notice the most and the one he had trouble keeping his mind off, was her figure. It was natural. He tried to ignore it, tried to treat her as a level person, not such a sex interest. But the more he resisted, the greater the urge became, until it began to shift into unbearable. His mind was constantly filled with images of her, his dreams filled with sexaul fantasies. It was beginning to show on the outside. He missed his sleep, didn't feel like eating , didn't feel like doing anything at all. His thoughts had even wondered to children accationally. This thought terrified him, there was nothing he would hate more than a little screaming infant tying him down. But somehow he couldn't resist the idea. His lust grew stronger each day, wanting to do things, share things with Rouge than he ever had before. So when Rouge phoned him up and invited him for a ' Little chat', he couldn't help but let his heart fly through the roof. He spent ages brushing his quills. He showered, brushed his teeth, shaped his quills, paced the living room, shaped his quills and brushed his teeth, again. But luckely he was ready in time and before he knew it the day had flown by and he found himself sitting on a picnic table in the sun set with the bat he had been thinking about so much latly.

" Shadow, are you ok?" Said Rouges angelic voice as it drifted into his hair. He jerked out of his head and stuttered

" Er, yeah! Just... Thinking". Rouge let out a smile that sent his heart beat into

Frenzy. He battled with his instint that had been bubbeling below the surface for weeks. But it wouldn't be deneyed and he suddenly slipped forward , making his lips touch hers for the first time ever, quickly jerking away, embarised. Rouge was a little shocked by this and Shadow looked down, feeling incredably ashamed and stupid. But then the bat gave an evil smile and grabbed Shadows face, dragging him forward and joining their mouths with force he had never felt before.

It didn't take long for Shadow to get worked up. He felt his heartbeat race with excitement and his face grew hot next to her's, while his stoumuch seemed to be doing backflips. Each time Rouge pressed her lips into his he retaliated, like a battle being fought with their faces. Shadow slowly felt his mouth inching open. A new taste entered his mouth, Rouges tounge had decided to meet his own. He redilly excepted and before he knew it there tounges were dancing together, and, for the first time since Maria, Shadow felt truly loved.

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and , in this case , Rouge ended the kiss that seemed to last for eons and took a look directly into Shadows face.

" Wow, your a natural" was all she could come up with. Shadow was too excited to speak, his eyes wide. Finnaly , he managed to say

" I guess that make us a couple". Rouge let out a warm smile and replied

" Guess it does". She rose from her chair, waving casually and saying " Well, i'll see you around, sexy". She gave a cheeky wink that made Shadow melt under his fur and flew of into the night. He watched her as far as his eyes would obay, then sat back down, awestruck, at what had just happened. He took a deep breath and said in a whisper

" Oh god, I think I love her"

AUTHORS NOTES

im feeling a bit insane today.

**Indigo moonlight**- Yep. i bet Knuckles is feeling real stressed

**Nightfire5309**-Dont worry, it sounds completly different to my fic. i may read it if i have time, although i generally dont read fan character stories.

**GameFreak38- **Hey! great to see you back! glad you liked the start, hope you stick around for the whole fic like you did with heroes kin.**  
**

**Chaotix extremist**- i know! lets all feel sorry for knuckles. awww.

**-RayZer**--Nice to see you like the story. warning, this will be filled with surprises. i love surprises.


	3. Wait a second, this isn't right

Knuckles eyes dropped as he wandered the city streets, alone. He had many looks from the passers by, but ignored them, an echidna was not a usual sight in these places. After two hours he had yet to find anyone he knew. The city seemed a lot bigger to him than before. He couldn't remember the last time he had visited it, but the memory was so old the buildings wavered and were fuzzy in his mind. But now they stood strong, almost as if they were trying to intimidate him. He cast his eyes downward and melted into his own head. He was too occupied feeling sorry for himself that he didn't look where he was going and smashed right into another creature walking the opposite way.

" Sorry" he mumbled quickly, as the creature crashed to the floor. He looked down and saw who he had collided with, and when his eyes fixed on her image they widened in humiliation

" Argh, you should watch were your going "said the bat in a semi-stern voice. Normally she would have blown a gasket, but unknown to Knuckles she had just encountered a certain black hedgehog and the experience had left her in a hugely lighter mood than normal. She looked up and her eyes widened with recognition. She gave a small smile and said " Well Knuckle-head, looks like after all these years your heads still as hard as ever". Knuckles didn't know what to do, so he decided to copy Rouge and speak in a casual tone, although even this was hard, he hadn't spoken to anyone for almost two years.

" Rouge, it's, it's...good to see you "he finally said, although his speech was strangely broken. Rouge grinned and said

" Was there any reason you finally left that stupid island?". Knuckles was about to blurt out ' To see you!' But decided against it, as it wasn't exactly a way to play it cool. Instead he opted for the response

" I need to see Sonic about something. Do you know where he lives?". Rouge shrugged and stood up.

" Beats me. But Shadow might know". Knuckles nodded and replied

" Do you know where he is?". Rouge gave a little laugh which surprised Knuckles and said

" Of course I do! We're...". Knuckles grew curious when she suddenly paused

" Your what?". Rouge didn't reply straight away, as if she was thinking something over.

" We're good friends " she said, recovering her casual tone as if she had never lost it. Knuckles raised an eyebrow and was about to reply with an over exaggerated ' riiiiiiiiiiiight', but stopped short, when he saw a fuzzy figure on the horizon. He squinted to see, but it was so blurry, he wasn't sure what it was. It's head was covered in what looked like Hedgehog quills, but they were far too numerous and seemed to less stable than a usually hedgehogs and hung slightly over it's head. The creatures bulky, strong looking hands tightening in furry and , in an instant, it had disappeared...

Knuckles was shocked by it's sudden and unexplainable disappearance. He closed his eyes, rubbed them with his oversized hands and fixed his gaze to where the creature was , but again saw nothing. " What you looking at Knuckles?" Asked Rouge when she spotted that Knuckles attention was no longer on her. He was broken out of trance and replied with a mumbled

" Oh, nothing". Rouge shrugged and said

" Well, let's go then". She began to walk off and Knuckles timidly followed her, tacking one more look back and seeing the hill top to be as uninhabited as before. He sighed and lowered his head as he realised that he must have been seeing things again. It worried him that it was still happening now he had found Rouge and that the illusion was now some strange, distant creature that he didn't even recognise.

Lost in his own head. Knuckles didn't even realise that Rouge was talking to him, telling him that they were now outside of Shadows plain and slightly boring looking apartment. Knuckles thought about making a comment about how the ultimate life form lives in the most boring house ever, but decided against it. He wasn't in the mood for jokes at that point.

" How should I know where that faker lives?" Said Shadow, who was not in the best of moods as Knuckles had knocked on his door right in the middle of the hedgehogs shower. Shadow leaned moodily against his door frame, his arms crossed across his damp chest and his eyes fixed with distaste on the red echidna who had just splintered his door while knocking with his large knuckles. Needless to say he was pretty angry. But that didn't last long. Once he saw Rouge, standing casually behind Knuckles, his whole face lit up and he straightened his stance. " Rouge!" He said trying to get his compulsure back " I didn't realise you were here. It's good to see you" he continued, even managing a smile at the end of the sentence. His eyes drifted suspisosly onto the echidna once more. " Why are you with him?" Asked Shadow, almost spitting out the last word. Knuckles grumbled and Rouge replied without a hint of uneasiness in her voice

" Knuckles just arrived in the city from angel island. I found him walking along and offered to help him find Sonic, I thought you may have known where he lives". Shadow . I tilted his head down, it was hard to tell but Knuckles hoped he was ashamed for suspecting anything. The last thing he wanted was to have a grudge against Shadow because he thought he was going out with Rouge. Although at the same time Knuckles hoped that Rouge and he was eventually go out, he had thought of nothing else for a long time. " Oh well. I guess i'll see ya later then Shadow, I have to find Knuckles a place to stay for the night" she said, heading off. Shadow almost jumped out of his door as he shouted

" Come back soon!". Rouge turned her head back and waved with a casual hand gesture. She turned back to Knuckles as he said in a greatfull tone

" You didn't have to do that, you know". Rouge shrugged and said

" What more could a friend do?. Knuckles blushed beneath his fur and mumbled a reply, but Rouge didn't hear it. While they were walking Knuckles took very chance he could to glance at her, without arousing her suspicions. Although they were some differences in her appearance, such as slightly longer hair, he still found her just as beautiful as he had always done. He felt his heart thumping in desire against his chest and his cheeks were fast becoming flushed. He hoped she wouldn't notice.

So when Rouge finally stopped outside of a neon lit club, Knuckles was glad that she had finally halted so he could get away without her noticing that he had become a little redder than usual. He assumed this was a hotel that Rouge was going to hire out for him. But when Rouge said

" Welcome to club Rouge. My home", Knuckles heart started racing again. He was going to stay at Rouges house? With nothing separating them but a flimsy plaster wall? Half of his mind filled with terror, while the other screamed with joy. He was going to be staying with Rouge! Alone! This was the opportunity he had been dreaming about for years. But as they stepped inside, Knuckles immediately began to realise that his vision wasn't going to play out like he expected it to.

She led him in through the back door, where they had a short walk alone a small corridor covered in posters, and excited through another door opposite the one they had just come through. As soon as this door opened, Knuckles eyes widened in surprise and fear.

As the sight filled his eyes he began to realise just how must of a 'club' club Rouge was. A huge boom of techno fuelled music filled the air, vibrating off the walls and jumping around inside Knuckles brain, immediately giving him a headache. Many, many animals, some of them hardly dressed, jerked about in time to the music. The dark room was lit by laser lights that skimmed across the many creatures and lighting their tops up with an ultra violet sheen. Rouge gave Knuckles a wink of encouragement and began to make her way across the crowded room. Knuckles was about to stop her from fear of overly drunk males who wanted more in their mouths than the beer they had been consuming. But Rouge simply strolled casually among them and they parted as if she was royalty. Then, a rebelish looking fox with his shirt torn off and drifting around his shoulders spotted her. He hastily called over his mates, two other foxes in an equal state, one cat who's hair was gelled so ridiculously that Knuckles thought he was a hedgehog first of all and a lizard who looked like he had many, many girls before. They rushed up to Rouge, like dogs wanting meat and began engaging her in conversation while their line quickly surrounded her, leaving her no way to escape.

" Hey sexy. What's been happening?" Said the lizard in a slippery voice that made Knuckles trust him even less.

" Yeah, we en't seen you for a long time. Haven't got any other men you been seeing? "said the cat, leaning over into Rouge. She gave an almost sickening smile and leaned back into the black cat for a few seconds

" Of course not. You know your my fav lads" she said in a tone dripping with lustful suggestion.

" Good batty" drooled the fox over her shoulder. Rouge turned and leaned into him instead, moving her hands a little lower on his body.

" You know me. Im a good girl, sometimes". The fox giggled stupidly and his hand moved somewhere it shouldn't. Rouge whirled round and slapped him.

" Uh, uh,uh" she teased, jumping up and flying out of the circle, landing near Knuckles and dragging him away. When they were safely away from the prying eyes of the perverts and the loud boom of the music, Knuckles faced Rouge and said

" WHAT was that all about?". Rouge didn't turn round as they walked back down the corridor.

" What was what all about?" She replied in a casual tone that made Knuckles blood boil.

" Those perverts! Touching you and drooling over you like you were some kind of sex object! It's disgusting!" He screamed, furious.

" It's called customer service. Do you think I like being grabbed at by those guys? But if I let them have their way, they tip way more. How do you think I make a living when im not hunting jewels?" She snapped back, beginning to get angry with Knuckles questions. Knuckles sighed and said

" I didn't think you were like this". This stopped Rouge. She hesitated, turned and flung her arms around Knuckles, enclosing him in a tight hug. This more than surprised him as he felt a blush erupt onto his face once more. He couldn't respond or ask Rouge why she had suddenly leapt out with an explosion of affection, but Rouge managed to beat him to speaking.

" I'm sorry Knuckles! I hate it here! I'm not really like this! I'm not some slag who flirts with every boy she knows!". Knuckles managed to gain a little control of himself and patted her shoulder uncomfortably. She straightened up and Knuckles saw that she actually did look genially upset. He saw an opportunity and smiled, saying

" Don't worry Rouge. I believe you". The worried looking bat returned the smile and said gratefully

" Thanks Knuckles". She unwrapped herself somewhat shyly and opened a door which led into a somewhat manky looking room. She motioned for Knuckles to go in and walked in herself. She led him through what Knuckles assumed was the living room and into a small bedroom, with many, many posters scattered along the walls and a jewel standing on a pedestal in the corner.

" You can sleep here" said Rouge, indicating a bed that sat innocently in the corner. Knuckles eyes widened and said in an unsure voice

" Is this...your bedroom?". Rouge laughed and said

" No knucklehead! This is the spare! You didn't think we were sharing did you?". Knuckles blushed incredibly deeply and shouted back in a defensive voice

" NO!". Rouge chuckled and replied in sarcasm.

" Of course not". She then walked out of the room, leaving Knuckles alone, sitting on the bed and feeling foolish.

AUTHORS NOTES

Sorry for the lack of updating. I've been buisy and I wanted to make this chapter a long one.


	4. Hormones

Just thought i'd mention that this story is an M. It's not rated for it's voilence or its language, so you can guess what it is rated for. The reason it is an M will start comming through now. enjoy!

That night , the echidna didn't sleep well. His dreams were filled with images of change, and were similar yet strange. He wondered, alone on angel island, the emerald before him once more. With an angry scowl, he struct it with his fist, so it shattered into thousands of peices, that danced together in the air before falling to the ground in a shattered mess. Pleased Knuckles began to stide away, but the emerald recontrusted it'self before his eyes, glimmering in delight it seemed to just to annoy him. He growled in frustration at it's unfairness, and was about to rush forward with a bellowed battle cry and repeat the act. But suddenly Rouge appeared infront of him, her wings shimmering with angelish light and she smiled with a golden hue.

" What are you doing here?" He demanded rudely, realising there was no reason for him to be shouting becuase the emerald was no longer in a state that needed guarding.

" What do you mean? Can't I visit?" She said, her tone smooth and not sharp. Knuckles frowned in confusion and replied in a slightly baffled voice

" Well, I guess you can. But , normally you just try to steal the emerald". Rouges face slowly dropped and her expresion saddened.

" I thought you liked me Knuckles" she said, her tone almost moarnful. Knuckles shifted around uncomfertably, as he wasn't really used to admiting his feelings to anyone.

" I do like you Rouge" he mumbled, shadowing his face as he lowered his eyes , trying to avoid the embarrissment of Rouge seeing him blush. But she didn't seem to notice.

" I thought I was the best freind you ever had" she said as if she hadn't heard his reply. Knuckles, becoming confused and desperate, yelled out in a straining voice

" You are my best freind! Please Rouge!". But Rouges eyes closed and a tears escaped them, crawling uncertanly down her cheek.

" I thought you loved me" she said in a quiet voice. Knuckles was shocked by this statement, but couldn't even control himself before he blurted out

" I love you Rouge!". Rouge gave a sniff and replied

" If that's the way you want it, knuckie". With a face that almost made Knuckles heart melt with guilt, even though he hadn't done anything wrong, Rouge took off. She flew awy from the island, with Knuckles desperatly shouting

" I do love you! I do love you Rouge! Come back! Please come back!" He desperatly shouted, but it was too late, she had gone. He collasped onto his kness, gently sobbing into the grassy island routes, the island that had trapped him, the island that had tacken his life...

The covers flew up as Knuckles bolted up right. He tried to steady his erretic breathing and noticed his was drenched in cold sweat, dripping down his dreadlocks and running onto the bed. Knuckles sighed at his minds fresh attempt to drive him crazy. He couldn't understand what the dream could have meant, he had never admited his feelings to Rouge, perhaps becuase he was scared she would laugh in his face, or reject him feircly. Perhaps that was what had create the nightmare.

The train of thought was soon driven out of his head when Rouge opened his door and walked in. Dressed only in sparse night clothes, ones that left most of her legs uncovered and a shirt which clearly showed the outline of her unsuported breats. Knuckles couldn't help but errupt into a huge blush and worse, to his alarm, he felt his pelvis area throbbing as his male organ started to become errect.

" Knuckles! Are you still asleep?" Asked Rouge, who seemed to be blistfully unaware the effect her night clothes were having on the male echidna. Knuckles didn't trust his voice at that point, so replied with a shacky nod. Rouge gave a little chuckle, which sent certain parts of her body into an unsteady wobble and walked out. Knuckles collapsed against the pillows as she left, his head drenched with sweat in an effort to control himself.

The hot shower helped Knuckles to calm himself, although the image of Rouge in her night garments still refused to leave his mind. Why does she have to torcher me so badly?' Screamed his mind in desperation. Apon leaving he found Rouge in the living room, fully clothed and thankfully suported. When she spotted him Rouge handed him a cup of coffee, which he rarely drank but accepted it anyway, for fear of looking foolish infront of her. After a few unremarkable seconds of sipping coffe, Rouge lowered the cup and said in a bright tone

" So , I guess we ought to find Sonic. What is it you wanted to talk to him for anyway?" She asked in curiosity and a little suspition.. Knuckles, suddenly feeling very hot again, cleared his throat and lowered his eyes to the ground as he spoke.

" Actually. I didn't come here to see Sonic. I came to, well, to see you Rouge" he said shyly blushing slightly. Rouge looked a little tacken aback, her shadowed eyes a little wider than usual. Soon she recovered her composule however and smiled a suggestive smile.

" Im honored Knuckles head, thought I stole your jewel again? Or are have you just come to check up on little old me?" She joked. Knuckles fists clenched and he said stifly

" Please Rouge! I'm being serios here, you know how hard it is for me to admit my feelings to, to someone I really care about" he finished, his blush definatly intensifying. Rouge saw his red tinted cheeks and nervous eyes and decided he needed to be tacken seriosly. She changed her stance to one that was less suggestive and modified her expresion so it showed gratitude and pity. Knuckles was still glancing down and so didn't see that Rouge had closed the gap between them. But when her arms ended up on his shoulders, he saw just how close they had become , and began to sweat through nervousness and excitement.

" I didn't know you felt that way about me" she uttered softly, if Knuckles wasn't so close he wondered if he would have heard it. Even at her hands touch his heart thundered in his chest and sent tingels down his skin. His mind locked onto her face. Was he nervous? Hell yeah. But for all the nervousness his lust was tenfold. Their eyes were locked now, their chests getting closer with every second. Then , finnaly , Rouge reached forward and their lips brushed, slowly pushing against each other, feeling the others texture. The feeling sent electric like currents through Knuckles face. The kiss seemed to last for an eternity. But , to Knuckles disapointment, Rouge pulled away and looked into his nobel voilet eyes. They stared in silence for a while, Knuckles feeling rather blown away by the whole experince. Ok, so it was only a little kiss, and could have been interpretted as a plutonic gesture. But Knuckles was so juiced up on theromones that he didn't care. He had kissed Rouge! After all those years of waiting, what he wanted had finnaly happened, and boy did he feel happy. " So, you came to see me. What do you want to do?" Said Rouge, her tone back to casual as she sat down on her sofa. Knuckles almost automatically sat down next to her and took a deep intack of breath as Rouge shuffled closer to him.

" Rouge?" He asked as he gave her a questioning look. She shrugged and said

" It's cold, brrr". She rubbed her arms. Knuckles grinned and said

" Yeah right, you just wanted to sit nearer to me". Rouge smiled and replied

" So what if I did? I just can't resist your handsom muscles". Knuckles faced grew hotter by the second and he wasn't sure how to make a move. Luckely Rouge made it for him. The bat pushed Knuckles onto his back and threw herself onto him. Knuckles was more than surprised at this sudden advance but the overwhelming pleasure that he felt rise through him canceled out any negative feelings or thoughts. His breathing was excited and his heart rate doubling over and over. Once again Rouge joined their lips, but this time their gently touch tranformed into a battle with their faces. With very push Rouge made, Knuckles equaled and soon he forgot everything apart from the feeling of Rouges lips. His temperature soured through out the minetes that dragged by and, when Rouge leg dragged past his sensitive area, he felt his middle begin to throb once again.

Knuckles would have gladly continued all day and, dare he say it, all night? But a tiny beep of an alarm went off somewhere west of his head, and Rouge left him to tend to it.

" Just leave it" he demanded. But Rouge threw him a nausty look and turned it off, straightened her clothing and said

" I have something to take care off, do whatever you want until I get back" she said and flew out of the door before Knuckles could protest.

WITH ROUGE TEN MINETES LATER

She tapped the doorbell three times, waiting for the apparments inhabitant to respond. The door creaked open and a males face came into veiw.

" Hello Shadow. Ready for our date?"

AUTHORS NOTES

I'm really sorry this took so long, my exams are giving me hell, im susposed to be revising right now but hey, i love u lot more. Anyway i'm just going to mention the rating again. M , i have now decided that there will be a lemon in this, but with who? you'll have to wait and see...


	5. That can't be right

" Do you wanna' come in?" Offered Shadow as he opened his apartment door at the lock. Rouge let out a well hidden excited grin and responded

" Sure, why not?" And Shadow opened his door in offering. Things had been moving very fast, only yesterday they had really started going out, and even then that was rushed into. Their date today had involved going to the cinema, kissing, hanging around in the shops, kissing, getting an ice cream, licking it off of each others lips and some more kissing. Rouge was very vicious, but Shadow liked that. And now, barely two days after they had officially started dating, he had invited Rouge into his apparent, obviously a sign that things were going to get a bit more intimate.

After Shadow gave Rouge a quick tour of his house, which her only comment was about his bedroom, which she remarked " Hmmm, this looks nice" she had said, giving Shadow one of her lusty smiles. Shadow smiled back, but closed the door and locked it, walking off as Rouge frowned in mild frustration. Shadow was taking it slow and being patient, but Rouge, as usual, didn't like having to wait for what she wanted. As Shadow walked into the living room, Rouge followed behind and pushed him onto his sofa. A little shocked by this gesture, Shadow didn't object when Rouge laid atop him, but no-one could have missed the blush on his face that had materialised thanks to the close contact of his chest and Rouges notably bigger front. Without waiting for Shadow, Rouge brought her head forward and kissed Shadow hard. In private, Shadow didn't bother hiding the moans that her lips texture and rhythm sent from his smothered mouth. Rouge stayed atop for a while, they didn't care of the time. But then a wave of aggressiveness washed over Shadow and in a testosterone fuelled frenzy he pushed Rouge off of him, switching their roles. He felt Rouge lips smile with pleasure against his own.

But suddenly, Shadow realised something. The heat of Rouges moving body beneath his own was causing noticeable side effects, most importantly a certain organ had risen up out of it's internal position. Rouge felt a hard shove against her leg, causing her to stop her assault on his lips.

" Shadow, is that what I think it is?". Up until then, Shadow didn't realise that Rouge had noticed his erection. As well as the alarm from that fact, Shadow also realised that he was now naked, properly naked and the only thing keeping his penis from Rouges view was her own body. Panicking he covered Rouges eyes and grabbed a book from the nearby coffee table, standing up with it blocking his middle area and blushing fiercely. Rouge sat up and grinned , commenting casually " Why you hiding Shadie? Not a small are you?". Shadow fixed her eyes on the floor and mumbled

" That's not why I'm hiding...". Rouges grinned widened and she sat up into a casual position.

" Why the book then?". Shadow didn't answer for a while, he looked as if he was thinking about something. Then he replied in an uncertain voice

" Actually, The reason I'm hiding... Is the opposite of the reason you gave" he said, giving a nervous smile and blushing so badly it looked like his face contained all the blood in his entire body, apart from another area of course. Rouge looked mildly surprised for a second and then replied in a cheek filled voice

" Well, let's see it then". Shadows eyes widened in astonishment. True he had dreamed of moments like this for months and was willing in his mind to do anything for Rouge. But in real life, he suddenly seemed unsure. Then a thought occurred in his mind, a rather dirty thought. Heres how it went ' If I show her myself, maybe she will show me some of her body'. Shame on you Shadow. He slowly lowered the cousin and revealed his ' pride and joy' . All Rouge could think of saying was

" Well, someone's a big boy"

Knuckles had a lot of time on his hands and nothing to do, so he ended up walked around Rouges apparent, exploring and generally being nosy. He entered her bedroom with a mind full of anticipation and found a lot of interesting things.

Her bed was unmade. It was beginning to dawn on him that Rouge was a bit of a slob. Make up littered her mirror table and lipstick marks were smudged on the dirty looking mirror. He rummaged through her draws. The first one contained many types of make up and other assorted things. Knuckles shut the draw in disgust . The next one contained her underwear, which Knuckles hastily shut. But after a few seconds thought, he opened it again, taking out her many thongs and completely ignoring the socks. He picked up one of her black lace bra's and marvelled at the size of their cups. When he was done for filling his ' needs' in that draw, he moved onto the bottom one, which was locked. Knuckles frowned, her turned and searched through the room for a key. After a few minuets, he found one resting on the dusty shelf. He picked it up, tried it in the lock and turned it, getting a feeling of triumph when it opened. When it did though, he wished he hadn't.

The bottom was lined with pills which Knuckles hoped were for headaches. There were numerous pads and tampons which Knuckles avoided for his life. There were many, many comdoms strewn in the corner and a small plastic stick sitting innocently I the corner. With curiosity Knuckles picked it up, wondering what it could possibly be. He rolled it over several times before the realisation hit him and the colour drained from his face.

" A pregnancy test? No, Rouge isn't... She can't be!" He said, scrambling around in the draw for an instruction manual to the thing. He found a screwed up piece of paper that turned out to be it and speed read it through until he found the section that told you what colour is what. He quickly checked the colour of the test and couldn't believe what he saw...

Blue. It couldn't have been right, it just couldn't. He reread the whole instructions again just to make sure, but there was no mistake. He sighed and said under his breath " Oh god Rouge, how could you get yourself pregnant?"

AUTHORS NOTES

Oh dear. Sorry about not updating, been playing Shadow the hedgehog on my beloved Xbox and want to unlock every ending! Like I said before, this is an M. The T rating was a mistake. And there was one of the surprises ...surprise!


	6. Unleash the madness

Suddenly , the door slammed, showing Rouge was indeed back from, where ever she had went. Knuckles mind went into panic mode and he hastily tried to shut the draw, forgetting he still had the positive test tucked away in his hands.

" Knuckles? Where are you?" She called, throwing down her bag onto the sofa. He gulped and rushed out of her bedroom, slamming the door and racing into the living room where Rouge was. The bat figured out where Knuckles had headed in from and grinned.

" Want to go in there already? Do you? Honestly Knuckles, you have a one track mind" she said in a seductive tone. Knuckles eyes widdened an unbelievable rate and he didn't answer from embarrissment. Rouge continued to smile, that it, until her eyes travelled to the little stick that Knuckles was holding in his hand. She became visably uneasy and said " Oh! That's my freinds you know, not mine". Knuckles raised an eyebrow, he had lost what she was talking about, until he realised what Rouge was looking at.

" Oh! I um...i was looking for..." He fumbled around with it in his hands, eventually dropping it onto the floor. He hastily side stepped away from it, as of it was a bomb ready to explode. The bat rolled her eyes and picked it up, throwing it into the bin as if it were no more than a piece of screwed up paper. " Your freinds?" Knuckles asked, finnaly getting his brain working within reasonable levels again.

" Yes" said Rouge. He licked his lips nervously and asked

" Not yours?".

" No" said Rouge. Knuckles took a long, drawn out breath and asked

" You've never?".

" I'm a virgin Knuckles" she confirmed. The echidna breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that Rouge wasn't that sought of person. But then he remembered the comdoms. Without thinking he burst out

" Why are there comdoms in your draw?". Again Rouge looked mildly shocked. She paused for a second and then said

" My freinds. She moved out a couple of weeks ago, so I moved into her old bedroom. She's staying with her boyfreind becuase they've decided to keep the baby. So your sleeping in my old room" she added. Knuckles had a breif thought of pleasure about how he had slept in a bed Rouge had once laid in.

Rouge uncrossed her arms and put her hands on her waist, tipping her hips slightly so her whole body was in more of a seductive position. Knuckles felt himself begin to sweet. " So Knuckles. What do you feel like doing?" She asked innoscently.

Knuckles slammed down on his bed, falling asleep almost straight away. His second session with Rouge was more intence than ever, so he took an early night, forcing himself not to drag Rouge in with him by the arms and throw her on the bed. As he sunk under the covers he felt his new erection fall slowly as he calmed down. He let out an exhausted breath. It had certanly seen it's deal of attention today, as Rouge had taken to oppotunity to massage it rather roughly when it had made it's appearance. As Knuckles felt the throbbing die down his mind shut itself down, and he slowly felt himself going to sleep.

He was once again on angel island, the emerald lay in thousands of shattered peices. He felt a twingde of guilt as he saw something he had been guarding for as long as he could remember lying broken on the floor. But this thought was soon forgotten when Rouge appeared again.

" Rouge!" He yelled in surprise, oblivios to the fact that he had this dream just last night. Once again, like the last night, Rouges eyes looked sad, lonly. She even looked close to tears.

" I thought you loved me Knuckles" she almost sung in sadness. Knuckles gritted his teeth and after a little hesitation he said

" I do love you Rouge". Like the previous dream Rouge didn't seem to hear him, and a tear gently rolled down her cheek.

" I thought you would give your life for me" she said again. Knuckles didn't hesitate in saying

" I would!". Suddenly, her face took on an angry expression. She frowned at Knuckles and yelled

" You ungreatful bastard!". Knuckles was more than a little surprised.

" What?" He stuttered, utterly confused. They stood there, in silence for a while, before Rouge began to change. Her wings melted into her back, her ears shrunk back into her head and re-emerged in a more pointed shape. Spikes burst out of the back of her head and her chest shriveled away, her white shining fur mixing into a murky black, while red strieks splattered on the new quills. As her clothes feel away, Knuckles realised he was now looking at the newly formed shape of Shadow. Not knowing it was a dream, he simply stared in disbeilief. The new hedgehog looked around in confusion, apparently not knowing he had just grown out of the body of Rouge. When he spotted Knuckles, the echinda expected him to shot him an accusing look, blaming him for bringing to angel island. But to Knuckles surprise, he let out a wide smile. Knuckles felt disturbed, he had never even seen Shadow smile that wide, it looked like it hurt.

" Knuckles, I've been meaning to talk to you" he said, and Knuckles felt strangly excited by his voice.

" What is it Shadow?" Knuckles replied, without smiling back. Shadows eyes drifted to the ground and he blushed.

" I just wanted to say..."

" Yes?" Said Knuckles, urging him on.

" I love you" he suddenly said. Knuckles almost chocked.

" WHAT?"

" WHAT THE HELL!" yelled Knuckles as he shot upwards , the covers flying wildly off of his chest. He shock his head in discust, that dream was horrible, he had a sick feeling in the pit of his stoumuch, making him feel like he was going to be sick. But then something occurred in his mind. If he was now with Rouge and he was supposed to be happy, why was he still seeing things? And why did he keep having these strange dreams? Was his subconscise trying to tell him that something wasn't right? What could possibly be wrong? He was with Rouge, he had what he had always wanted. He had finnaly rid himself of his encaging duety, and he was actualy sleeping in a bed at night and not on a patch of grass.

' This isn't what you need, and you know it'

' How do you know?'

' It's a feeling'

' Oh yeah, and who else could possibly help me? Huh?'

' Well, I can think of someone'

' Who?'

' Now that would be telling'

' Hey wait!'. But the other half was gone. Knuckles growled at the fact that he still seemed to be able to have a meaningful converation with himself and yelled out " Moron!" At his other half.

" Started talking to yourself now Knuckles? I'm not driving you that mad am i?" Asked Rouge innoscently from the edge of the doorway. Knuckles flustered a little and shock his head.

" No. I wasn't talking to anyone". Rouge rolled her eyes and wondered out of the room. ' Great, now she thinks im insane'. He thought to himself.

ONE MONTH LATER

Rouge had continued to see both Knuckles and Shadow in secret. She would wake up in the morning, spend the morning in her appartment with Knuckles, then left in the beginning of the afternoon, spending the rest of the day with Shadow, then she worked in her club in the night. Knuckles wondered if she ever slept, becuase he never saw her go to bed, and when he woke up in the morning she was always up, although sometimes she was in her night clothes. Knuckles was still wondering where she went when she wasn't with him. She had used various excuses, but Knuckles was sure she was running out, as they were becoming rather exotic and unusual.

Shadow wasn't exactly ignorant either. His feelings for Rouge had begun to grow and shrink at the same time. The lust and pation that he had tried so badly to hide had erupted to the surface and he found himslef not even bothering to go out with Rouge anymore, they just spent all their time in his appartment. But his feelings for her as a person began to decline. When there wern't being physical, she seemed to completly ignore him, become moody, or accuse him of not loving her. She never seemed to want to stay over night either, Shadow had offered, and although she looked extremly tempted , she always refused. Shadow began to dought her loyalty. He sat up all night debating whether she loved him, and whether he loved her himself. Finnaly , he made the disision to use the phone number he had never dialed.

" Hello?"

" Rouge. I need to talk to you"

" Errr, this isn't a great time Shadow" replied Rouge as she tried to keep Knuckles from hearing the phone call.

" Not a great time? Why?" Came Shadows confused reply.

" I'm...occupied" she said, as Knuckles kissed her chest. Rouge let out a moan when Knuckles bit her nipple, but even though she tried to silence it, Shadow heard.

" What was that?". Rouge tried desperatly to push Knuckles off, but he wouldn't get the message.

" I er, bit my tounge".

" Bit your tounge"

" Yeah". There was a pause as Shadow listened to more suspitious sounds and tried to figure out what was going on. He heard another muffled voice through he phone connection.

" Who is that?" He asked. Rouge lounged back to try and get away from Knuckles, but the fact that she was half naked made the echidna full of urges that he couldn't ignore. Rouge hid another moan and gasped out

" No one!". Shadow heard the other voice ask the same question he had and said

" Someone is there, I can here them". There was a pause, from which Shadow heard more suspisious sounds. " Rouge? Tell me who's there or i'll come over and break the door down to see!-" he yelled frantically into his resiever, then the phone cut off, and Shadow threw his phone down on the floor in rage. Knuckles , fed up of Rouge attention not being fully devoted to him, grabbed the phone, cut off the call and threw it across the room where it landed mirably in the corner. He continued to fondle with her, that was, until the doorbell rung.

" Crap!" Burst out Rouge, as in the pation of the moment, she had forgotten about the fact that Shadow could do chaos control. She shoved Knuckles off of her, which he was not happy about, and dragged him into the bathroom with her. He threw her an incredably angry yet confused look and she placed a finger to her lips to indicate he should be silent. He frowned but obeyed, thinking someone important was here too see her, and he didn't want anyone seeing her topless, no one but him of course.

They waited through a few more tension bringing rings of the doorbell and then the ringing stoped. Rouge sighed with relief. Then a strange sounds rang through the apartant followed by a thud as Shadow used his chaos control to invade Rouge house. Knuckles felt anger rage within him as Shadow's voice was heard calling out for her.

" Rouge? Where are you?" He yelled, as shuffeling was heard and footsteps showed that Shadow was wondering around the appartment, looking for Rouge. She knew she has to get rid of Shadow quickly, or he would start blabbing and Knuckles would finnaly realise what was going on, and she definatly didn't want that.

" Shadow, i'm in the bathroom, leave me alone" she yelled through the door. The foot steps grew louder as Shadow made his way to the outside of the bathroom door. They ceased when he had apparently got there. Shadows voice, now alarmingly close, came through muffled as he spoke

" Who was here?" He asked, as if the person who had been here could have left within three seconds. Knuckles surpressed a growl.

" No one Shadow, go away!" Cried Rouge in desperation, getting a towel and clutching it around her exposed chest incase she would need to physically prize Shadow out of her home. There was a pause and neither footsteps nor a voice could be heard. Then Shadow voice was heard on the other side of the wood again, but this time it seemed to be different, with a softer, more persuasive tone leaking into his voice.

" If there's no-one there, I could come and keep you company". Rouge felt Knuckles shudder with fury next to her and quickly screamed

" Piss off!". Shadow grunted and apparently got the message, as his footsteps started up again, this time getting fainter. Knuckles heard the footsteps stop and the rustling sound as Shadow removed his chaos emerald from his pocket.

" If I find out there is anyone else there. I'm gonna rip there head off!" He boldly claimed, before a flash was seen under the door crack and he was gone. Rouge unlocked the door and Knuckles rudly shoved her aside to get out first. Not seeing Knuckles baring his sharp teeth in an infuriated snarl, Rouge reacted to Knuckles boystrous behavior with an equaly angry

" Watch what your doing, prick!". Knuckles turned slowly and Rouge saw the most angry expression she had ever seen on his face since she knew him, more than when she stole the master emerald, more than when she used to flirt with him , more than anything that had ever happened. It was then she realised, she had made a mistack.

" Why , the FUCK was he here?" He asked in a slow, menicing voice, locking onto Rouge with his deep voilet eyes with a deadly stare. She knew if she didn't play it right, she would be in trouble.

Avoiding his unnerving eyes, she causionally moved over to him, wrapping her arms around Knuckles and leaning as much as her chest into him as she could and said

" Don't worry about him Knuckles, what about _us_?" She almost drooled into him. It was working, she could feel his breathing deepen as he tried to control himself. He looked down into her face and she smiled in the most desirable way she could. But to her alarm his eyes widdened into a more angry hard look, and he shot his arm out, catipulting her across the living room.

Rouge gritted her teeth and lifted herself off the floor, her cheek ached and her rips felt broozed. She had never had a man do that to her in her life. Her head began thumping from the impact as she lay, still half naked, with her abusive boyfreind still fuming in the corner. She realived where she had landed. The table from which she had been drinking from her bottle of vodca earlier. The glass shards had been smashed against her face and some of her ear. She felt a few drops of blood against her face and one tiny shard that he made it's way into her skin. She suposed she was lucky that the whole bottle didn't embed it'self into her body, but it still bought quiet a pain into her face.

She stole a glance at Knuckles. He no longer looked angry, but was staring in shock at his arm, the same one that had thrown Rouge across the room, the same on that had made her bleed. He saw the blood, the glass shard, and it was like his whole face melted. His eyes misted over and a droplet of water ran down his face. His knees wobbeled and collapsed underneath him, and he went down on all fours, weeping.

" I'm a fuckin' ediot!" He yelled to himself, holding his head in his hands and scrunching his fingers against his skull. He bashed his head in fury and wept onto the floor. Something clicked in him then, and all the confusion he had struggled to lock away through the years sprewed out like a mountain falling to the ground

" Help me!" Yelled Rouge when she realised that Knuckles seemed to be in his own head. But he ignored her, sceaming like a little child and howling, bashing his head onto the floor and ripping at his dreadlocks. Rouge pushed herself up painfully and grabbed for a bunch of tissues on her right. Next she wrapped her hand carefully around the shard in her face, and with one swift, painful moment, she yanked it out of her face, causing fresh blood to leak out from the new cut. Meanwhile Knuckles kept his howling, and began punching his head with his fist, slamming it against himself with worrying force.

" Hello? We need an ambulance, I think..." Rouge stuttered , afriad into the phone as she called 999. Her fear was not for herself however, but for Knuckles, as blood began to trickle from the place he had hit himself so many times. Why was he doing this! She thought to herself in panic. By now the crying had stopped and Knuckles was simply screaming ' I hate myself! I hate myself!" Over and over again. Rouge had never seen him like this, but it seemed as if he had suddenly turned completly insane. " Knuckles! Stop it! Your hurting yourself!" She said, crawling over and trying to pull his arms under her control to prevent him from hitting himself again. But he didn't seem to notice at all, and simply continued striking himself as is Rouge wasn't even there.

To Knuckles, the catalist that realised all the tension he had been holding through the last three years was the shard of glass, embedded into the one he loved. It was his fault, his mind screamed to him, and in a way it was. He had hurt Rouge, the only one who ever cared for him , and now he was paying the price. Perhaps he overeacted. Any normal man would have simply rushed to help Rouge. But Knuckles mind was crushed from years of isolation, so all he did was weep.

The ambulance arrived and took both of them. At some point during the journey Knuckles and Rouge were seperated, the bat was clothed properly and carted off to another part of the hosiptal to have her face sewn up. She didn't know what they did with Knuckles...

AUTHORS NOTES

I'm sorry about that time this chapter took. I had major writers block for this story. But i'm back on track now! R+R please!


	7. Forgivness

After a few hours, the anaesthetic began to wear off, and Rouge started to stir from her sleep in a hospital bed. Something restricted the movement of her face, and she reached up to find a heavy bandage strapped around it, suffocating her face below. She sighed and a brief thought of ' This is gonna kill my job' ran through my head, before her thoughts switched back to Knuckles, and his complete berserking episode that happened when he had hurt her. She wasn't particularly thrilled at what he had done and how he had reacted, and she thought that, if he did it again, she would dump him. She still had Shadow, who was sensible enough not to throw her across the room, and all those lads at her club who were dying to get a piece of her. Besides, hiding Shadow and Knuckles from each other was getting to problematic. But, she wouldn't give up on Knuckles yet.

" Excuse me, where's Knuckles?" She asked a nearby nurse. She looked up and said

" You mean that young, red echidna? He's in east wing". Rouge thanked her and rushed off, frowning slightly. ' Wasn't east wing for patients with mental difficulties?' She thought, but pushed it out of her head, maybe he had just wondered off while waiting and got lost.

She tracked Knuckles through the small corridors and multiple wards, eventually finding him in a lonely, isolated room, sitting up right in a bed and being talked to by an unfamiliar man. He only looked as if he was half listening, but, when he saw Rouge standing in the doorway, whatever attention the man had was completely lost, as he hid his face, in a effort to try and blend in with the background. But the white wall paper didn't help and Rouge easily found her way over to him, taking his hand, being careful to avoid the spikes, the same ones that he slashed her face earlier.

" Rouge, I hurt you. I'm sorry, you don't deserve me" he mumbled miserably, still avoiding her eyes. Rouge had a brief urge to agree with him and dump him right there, but then she realised she had to give him a second chance, maybe it was just a one-time ordeal. She smiled.

" It's all right Knuckles, I feel fine now" she gave herself a gentle slap around the face to try and illustrate her point, wishing she hadn't when a stinging pain rang through her skin, but she ignored it and tried to maintain her smile. Knuckles didn't seem convinced, but seemed to have gained a slice of confidence, as he removed his hand from the front of his face and instead laid it over the top of his over one, staring at them both with his eyes lowered. By now the person who had been talking with Knuckles had left, seeing that the two obviously needed some time of their own. Rouge realised his absence and asked

" Who was that?". Knuckles gave a dark chuckle and replied

" My councillor. They think I need to be put into therapy, apparently I have, ' Anger problems'". Rouge gasped lightly, partly from fear of what Knuckles might have been becoming, and another of sympathy, with Knuckles picked up. " Don't worry, I've been telling them I feel fine and their considering letting me go" he added, looking up at Rouge and trying to seem happy, although at that moment he felt lower than a worm. He pulled a struggled smile to try and convince her. But Rouges thoughts remained unchanged about the situation, and she stayed with Knuckles for a few more minuets, almost missing her date with Shadow and rushing off , giving Knuckles and quick kiss and telling him she would be back that afternoon.

Their moans vibrated through the entire apparent, lustful noises created by the passion of the moment. The bed was now in full use, and although they were not having sex, they weren't exactly far away from it. Rouge was fully unclothes and in Shadows grasp, as he fondled and caressed her sweet lumps. His own erection was clearly present and fully sized, thumping with the extra blood that rushed to it. It glided past Rouges inner thigh and she went to press herself into it, Shadow backing off quickly at her advance. So instead she made do with reaching forward with her hand and wrapping it around it's circumference, gently pumping her hand back and forth. Shadow gasped with almost hideous pleasure and his breath raced, his groans rising in height, turning into primitive grunts and eventually roars of delight. Rouge smiled at his noises, but couldn't fully enjoy herself, her thoughts kept drifting to Knuckles, lying on his own in the hospital bed, being talked to in a calm, slow, voice, as if he were to explode any minute. She mentally kicked herself at her attachment to the echidna, knowing fully well she may even be getting rid of him soon. But he wouldn't leave her mind, so when Shadow let his juices out all over her, she screamed in surprise, rolling away and wiping it away with anything she could get her hands on. Shadow blushed in embarrassment and quickly sat up.

" Sorry Rouge. I did warn you" he said meekly. Rouge sighed and huffed back

" That's ok Shadow" but by her tone it wasn't ok at all. She got up and started dressing herself again, while Shadow watched in disappointment as she was covered up. While she clothed herself, he rolled on his front and said

" You know Rouge. I've been thinking about our future". Rouge didn't seem to care and replied vaguely

" Really?". Shadow, undeterred by her seemingly uncaring voice tone, continued

" Yes. Very much, actually. And, thinking throughout my entire life. I haven't been this happy since before Maria died". Rouge pulled her gloves on and replied

" Oh, really". Shadow nodded and said

" Yes. So, I was wondering. Well, I know it's so soon, but, I was wondering if you would like to move in with me, I have a lot of room here all by myself". This stopped Rouge. Her relationship with a guy had never got this far before. Usually they would find out about her cheating ways and get rid of her quickly, but she had it so carefully planned this time, it seemed Shadow and Knuckles would never find out. But moving into Shadows apartment would cause no end of suspicions for Knuckles, not to mention the other guy she had just started seeing, Knuckles therapist. But it was ever so tempting. She and Shadow could do what they wanted anytime of day, even at night, like ordinary couples did. But she had her work to consider, and her view on getting rid of Knuckles seemed to be changing. With a hesitant voice, she replied, while Shadow listening excitedly

" Look Shadow. It's really kind for you to offer me, but I have my work I have to do".

" Move it here" Shadow said, undeterred. Rouge raised an eyebrow and said

" A whole club?". Shadow slouched in defeat. " Besides, I'm not sure I'm ready for that sort of commitment yet, but thanks for the offer Shadow" she said, feeling uneasy, and quickly made her escape through the door before Shadow could call her back. But she wasn't quick enough, and Shadow called out through the apartment a question she dreaded

" Do you love me Rouge?". She hesitated, stopped and stood still for a moment. No one had ever asked her that anyway, not in the serious way at least. How could she answer? Did she love Shadow? She loves their sessions together, he was an amazing sex partner. But in real life terms, he was too silent and miserable for her and too trusting, anyone who was too trusting was stupid in her eyes.

" Yes, I do love you Shadow" she called behind her, and left through the front door, sighing as she headed away from the hot spot.

WARNING! WARNING!- THIS PART OF THE CHAPTER CONTAINS VERY GRAPHIC SCENES! IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT! SKIP THIS CHAPTER!

" I all ready told you I feel fine!" Came the easily recognisable of her second boyfriend. Rouge smiled with familiarity as he argued impatiently with his therapist, who was handing him a number of ' Chill pills' and basically telling him to calm down. Knuckles stopped raging when he saw Rouge, and rushed over to her, pleadingly he said

" Please Rouge. Tell them I'm not insane! Tell them you'll look after me!" He asked, grabbing her hands in desperation. Clearly his new therapist was driving Knuckles insane. Rouge assured them that he would be fine in her care, and after filling in a dubious amount of safety paper work, Rouge managed to get him out of the hospital and back to her apartment. When they arrived he threw his pills into the bin, and slumped down onto the sofa, Rouge taking a seat opposite him. He looked at her, analysed the cut on her head, still bandaged up, and gave a heavy sigh. " I'm sorry for loosing it yesterday Rouge. I don't know what came over me, I think the fact I hurt you just, made my brain explode! Will you forgive me?" He said, speaking with sincerity that made Rouge almost say yes straight away. But then another thought entered her head, and she realised her session with Shadow earlier today just wasn't enough for her, and that right now, her body demanded Knuckles hands to caress her.

" I'll only forgive you, if you do something for me" she said, her eyes narrowing in a crafty position. Knuckles was slightly put-off by her response, but was so desperate for redemption, that he was willing to do just about anything.

" What do I have to do?" He asked, wondering what Rouge could possibly have in mind. She smiled in delight at his agreement, getting up and wondering into her bedroom. She came out and tossed Knuckles a small object, which he caught in his hands. He looked down and realised what it was, his eyes almost dropping out of his head. " Are you serious!" He asked, shocked. Rouge, still smiling, nodded. Knuckles sighed, a sudden feeling of immense pressure build up welling through him. Although most of his screamed with delight at this new update, but another part whispered, almost unheard in his head, ' Your not ready for this yet. Can't you see? It's going to ruin you'. But like the small kid at the back of the class, Knuckles ignored his little voice of caution. He stared at it again, looked up, and said " I'll need help". Rouges grin only intensified at his request and she dragged him into the bedroom, her bedroom, throwing him down on the sheets. She clambered on top of him, her eyes fixed onto his own for a while, before plummeting in with a forceful kiss, and started moving up and down on top of him. It was from that moment, that he knew she was serious, and the very excitement of it caused his penis to rise.

As Knuckles tongue forced it's way into Rouge mouth, the bat began to tear at her clothes, Knuckles aiding her with his own hands. But they proved stubborn, and in the end Knuckles resorted to ripping at them with his spiny claws, shredding them to pieces. It wrecked her clothes, but Knuckles didn't care, he was closer to his goal.

By now, there was no more hesitation in complying with Rouge request. His body and erect organ screamed for him to simply plunge in feel the soft, wet feeling of luxury that was the inside of Rouge's body. But he knew in his mind he should take it slow, and enjoy loosing his virginity as much as possible, with the bat he loved with all his heart. When Rouge unhooked the back of her bra, he felt the now familiar of pleasure at the sight of her breasts, but he had yet to see the bottom part, the part his instincts wanted to so badly take. He removed his gloves and shoes, and reached forward with his hand to removed the last remnant of Rouges underwear, his breath rushing into his throat and out again at what lay underneath. He began to sweat, and it rolled down his face as his breath became laboured, heaving with passion, barely contained. Rouge crouched over him, her face ready and looking excited at the coming episode. She rolled onto her side and rested herself next to him, her breasts flopping to her side as gravity took it's effect. It was all the incentive Knuckles needed and his hand travelled down her body, tracing it's perfect curves, until finally running down and tentatively making contact with the outer lips of her passage. Gently pushing them aside, while Rouge began to labour her breathing too, feeling a tingle run up her at his contact, her sensitive area started to thump heavily as her heart raced. By now the sweat bleed off Knuckles, and he thrust his first finger up Rouges passage, gasping at it's feel, imagining how that texture would feel, wrapped around his penis. His mouth hung open as he dug his way around, feeling deeper and deeper into Rouge atomany, until he found a particular spot that Rouge seemed to adore. When his finger drifted past it, Rouge let out a pleasured moan , one that caused Knuckles to let out a deep groan of his own. Slowly loosing control of herself, Rouge grabbed Knuckles hand and urged him even deeper, a second finger squeezing it's way in the deep tunnel, just as Rouge began realising her juices over his fingers. Knuckles removed his fingers briefly to taste the liquid of the goddess, and it made his mouth water, the bitter yet sweet taste that felt like sugar against his excited tongue, a tongue which wanted more of the taste for it's own, and demanded Knuckles to take action. So he heaved himself of the sheets and twisted Round, so his feet now lingered by Rouges head and his mouth was directly over the area he desired to explore so much. Without much hesitation, his tongue plunged into the space that was occupied by his fingers not so long ago. Rouges moans raised to new pleasure inducing levels and he found himself almost roaring along with her, as she secreted more moisture over his awaiting tongue.

But while he continued to seep up any juices Rouge managed to release, he felt a sudden feel of wetness tingle down his own sex organ, and gave a surprised gasp, as he felt Rouges own tongue explore down it's length and gently massage it's head. He found him self retracting his tongue and growling instructions longingly at her, almost pleading with her to gives him harvests of pleasure.

" The tip...ah! Yes there!" He almost screamed, and Rouge started rolling her tongue around the particular point, licking at the hole and around the two domes. Knuckles began to twitch, his legs falling out of his control as she continued with her task, growling like an animal, a slave to instinct. He felt Rouge hand on the back of his head, forcing him back into her with his own tongue, as she continued to lick him, waves of pleasure radiating from it with every pass of his most prized area. And while, he continued to dig deeper and deeper into her passage, her fur now right against his face, stroking him in encouragement, he felt Rouge partial assaults rise to full ones as her whole mouth enclosed around him, clamping down onto his stone hard organ. His eyes twitched and his breath jerked in and out, his moans excellerating and morphing into howls of delight. It was then that he felt it. The throbbing was almost unbearably strong at that point and her movements back and forth caused the natural response to be quickened. With one last jerk of his leg, his own juices finally made an appearance in the game, coming fast and quickly and ending almost as quickly as they came. The contents swarmed in the inside of Rouges mouth, the thousand of sperm in that tiny amount of liquid swimming around in a confused state, being dropped off in the wrong place, they were doomed to fail.

At the sudden salty taste of his cum, Rouge made Knuckles exit her mouth, and his tongue retreated from her soaking wet channel. Heaving his breath in and out of his lungs, Knuckles struggled to sit up, while Rouge watched him with an amused look on her face.

" Is that all you've got? Knucklehead?" She said cheekily. Knuckles grinned widely and sexually and replied in a lustful tone

" That was just the pre. I've got plenty more to come" he paused and licked the rest of her juices of his lips "If you can handle it". Rouge stretched out her wings, casting an imposing shadow over Knuckles, and tackled him into the bed sheets, as they flew up under the weight of the two sweaty bodies. His penis drifted past her hole, and even the slightest touch sent both Knuckles and Rouge into excited shivers. More violent kissing ensued, and Knuckles once again reached deep within to Rouges passage, finding it even wetter than before, and started running his fingers in and out off her hole, simulating the feeling of actual sex. And with every push Knuckles made with his paw, Rouge gasped as it rushed past her sensitive walls. A third finger joined the party, and Rouge had ended up against the bed sheets, Knuckles towering over her, sweat dripping off his face, rolling down his dreadlocks. His violet eyes observing her fully naked self even as he proceeded with his task, Rouges sounds of pleasure making his heart speed, if it hadn't already had enough action today. Rouges eyes were closed, her face flickering with pleasure at the encounter, as Knuckles drummed her insides. Then, he pulled out, again cleaning off his fingers. Rouge had opened her eyes and was watching him intently, her ice blue eyes almost unnerving and her non-smiling face didn't help matters. But then, Knuckles felt something drift past his left outer thigh, and next over his left check, finally tickling around the edge of his own hole and plunging deep into it.

Knuckles shrieked in pain, and howled for Rouge to remove her finger as it slid deeper into his ass. But Rouge wouldn't move, as if, by some weird means, she knew that there was pleasure waiting to come from here to. Knuckles almost melted when he got over the initial shock and found his howls turning into delighted ones. Why on earth he would enjoy this sensation was past him, but then he realised, he really didn't care, it was Rouge who was doing this to him, and so he accepted it. His back arched and twisted as his body both rejected and welcomed the strange feeling, Rouges finger twisting round like a snake inside of him. Knuckles knew he had to return the favour, but some changes had to be made to their position before he could do his part.

He pulled Rouges hand out of his backside, gently sitting up while his hole at the back buzzed with a strange feeling of tightness. He grabbed her by the arms and in one swift movement, showing his upper body strength, flipped her over so her front pressed onto the sheets. Rouge knew what was coming but felt couldn't help but grimace in surprise when he plunged full force between her cheeks, giving the loudest roar of exquisite pleasure yet. Rouge instinctively recoiled at his advance, it hurt her to have something that big bury itself into such a small space, and he didn't exactly take it slow either. But soon, just like Knuckles, she got over the initial shock and her face curled into a smile as the sensation grew. It took Knuckles a while to get to grips with himself after making a first timers mistake. His rock hard penis had been squished to it's limit in Rouges tight passage, and pain jolted up in for the first few seconds, taking away his breath. A few seconds of laboured puffing and he was back on track, slowly pulling out then forcing himself back in, pulling himself out and forcing himself back in. He couldn't maintain this slow pace, his body demanded he go faster, and Rouges pleasure squeals are more than an indication to do so. The walls grinded against him, rubbing him roughly. He forced himself as far in as he could go, and Rouge screamed with a mix of pain and pleasure. Then Knuckles froze as he felt it coming, but he knew he couldn't stop it, the simulation of actual sex sent a message down to his glands, and soon he felt his seed rush up through his tube and break through his hole, exploding out into Rouges body, spilling out of the whole and drenching the lower part of her back.

Knuckles heaved his breath as he came, the condom lay to his side, long forgotten. He collapsed on top of Rouge, who pushed him of and turned himself over. He lay to his side, tired from his own part of the event, but Rouge clearly wanted more, and started nibbling his shoulder and neck, licking and biting in and effort to try and get him back into the mood.

It worked, the tingles that Knuckles felt running down his chest and neck at her tempting nibbles were enough to send him back into the zone of sexual desire. Although his erection was fast disappearing, it was forced back into the action when Rouge took a hold of it with her right hand, wrapping her ungloved fingers around it and pumping it gently back and forth, increasing her speed and pressure when she saw it begin to work and Knuckles begin to sweat once again, the now familiar growls of lustful desire back into action. Once he was solid enough, Rouge removed her grasp around it and stroked it head, while Knuckles breaths stuttered at the tingles that ran all through his body. Her saw her laying there, her hole still soaking wet, and his mind exploded, screaming ' Do it! Do it! Do it now!'. Rouge, lying flat on her back, saw him looking, watching, ready to strike. And her heart quickened as she realised it was finally time and she squirted more juices at even the thought of it.

Knuckles towered over her, his breath ragged. Then finally, his instincts persuading wouldn't be denied anymore and he lowered himself down, piercing her hole and deepening himself slowly. He almost melted with pleasure as the feeling of soft, wet flesh that cuddled his penis. Rouge secreted an amazing about of juices over him at the internal contact, the thumping in her walls pounded her almost as hard as Knuckles was now doing. With every push Knuckles gave, he delved deeper into her cavern, as bucket loads of sweat rolled down his dreadlocks, falling onto Rouge like the bodies raindrops. Knuckles heaved and moaned, screaming and growling, howling and gasping with every push he made, his penis almost ached as it became so big, pounding with such strength Knuckles thought it would explode. And just as Knuckles didn't think it could get any better, Rouge had an orgasm...

She felt it coming as he moved up and down on top of her, but it surprised her when her walls contracted with a huge force, clamping at Knuckles and making him howl in agony and pleasure. She two sang with delight at the feeling, the unmistakable crushing sensation that sent pounding surges of pleasure down her whole body. By now Knuckles was exhausted, but kept up his movements, his muscles aching from the rather strange form of exercise. And just as he thought he was ready to stop, Rouges second orgasm rocked her walls, clamping so hard on him it exploded with his seed, seeming to force every last drop of his cum out of his and blasting into her cavern. At the liquid texture of his cum, Rouge pressed herself instinctively into him, their chorused pleasured singing ringing through the apartment as the last of his liquid pumped it's way out of the echidna, and he took two, gasping breaths and collapsed to her side, her tired smile almost the last thing he saw. As the exhaustion overcame him, he noticed Rouge talking, marvelling at how she could still speak without starving herself of her oxygen.

" Your...forgiven" she huffed, and passed out, Knuckles following soon after.

AUTHORS NOTES

Yes! My first ever lemon! I need a big response on this people, was it good? Was it correct? Was it magical? I tried to make it tasteful ( well as tasteful as you can make these things) and...well... I need feedback! If it needs improvement, or shortening, then please tell me! No flaming about me being disgusting, this is the real world, and I'm not the only one who writes this stuff!


	8. A warning

As Knuckles stirred, he slowly became aware of the lack of light around him. During his sleep, the night had fallen. Knuckles yawned and rolled over to view Rouge, who was still asleep, her mouth hanging open slightly as she breathed. Her chest rising and falling. He smiled, feeling pleased that his virginity was gone, and to someone he really loved. Taking a long sigh he settled down again to sleep, but a strange sensation in his head made him reconsider his action. Suddenly, a dizzy feeling of light headedness passed through him as the blood rushed away from his head . It was so unexpected he found himself collapsing against the wall and bed.

He found himself waking up surrounded by sinister, constricting black clouds, enveloping everything around him. His sight was limited to only a few meters around him, and for a while he heard nothing. Then, a faint explosion was heard in the background, soon followed by others that radiated around his body. He found himself hurtling towards them, running with all the power he had, but the sight that met his eyes made him blink and recoil in shock.

Harsh noises of pain rocked the air around him, as the two creatures, levitating above him like mutilated angels, traded deadly blows. But what surprised him most of all, was the fact that one of the creatures, was himself.

And yet it wasn't him. The echidnas long dreadlocks flew around in the breeze, gracefully twisting around his neck and back, as he shot forward his blasts, powerful spears of light that exploded on contact. The scar that Knuckle possessed running alone the crown of his head was missing, and his eyes were full of life, his muscles bulging in effort as he fought, his elongated, spiny claws slicing the moisture around him. Overall it seemed, that this was the alter ego of Knuckles, what he could have become if every negative thing had been taken out of his life, and if he was allowed to rise to full power, free from the captive grasp of the emerald.

The creature that fought him however, was by no means heavenly. In it's chest, the master emerald was embedded. It sparked and shone with power every time the creature sent forth it's twisting, oozing blast of oil like purple sludge to the alter-Knuckles. The emerald was patterned with crakes, where Knuckles had smashed so many times in his dreams. It's head was like that of chaos, but it's ears held spines and tentacles, leaking out poisoning gas as it swerved. It hollow red eyes seemed to hold no emotion as it tried, without effort it seemed, to wipe-out the struggling echidna. Four arms, all see through with bones and muscles pumping inside, helped it fire it's acid, while it's legs were made up simply of a dissolving cloud of toxic waste. It laughed menacingly and threw open it's mouth, vomiting more of it's evil poison at the alter Knuckles, who vaulted in the air, hovering over it as is swarmed underneath him, lapping up and biting at his ankles. The foul creature with the emerald in it's chest growled and thrashed in beastly frustration and looked like he was getting ready for revenge on the echidna, but then, he spotted Knuckles, and if it was possible, his evil red eyes, got even reader, and his emotionless body language twisted to one of utter hatred.

It swopped down, forgetting about his foe, and knocked Knuckles to the ground with such force, he felt a crack in his ribs and coughed up his own blood. The creature, reeking of toxic oil, opened it's foul mouth, which gurgled with liquid teeth, and bellowed at Knuckles, towering over him as he lay , powerless on the floor.

" HoW dAre You?" It snarled, it's voice echoing around, making it seem like there was a million of him. Knuckles almost spasmed with terror, realising just what this creature was. " GuArDIAN! POllutED YouRSelf In ThAT FiLTHY HoRES JuiceS! Now She carRies YoUR Seed IN her UnDiSSERving womB! No gUaRDian cAN bE a MONgrol! For ThIS! I WILL PUNISH YOU!" It roared, striking Knuckles atop the head and digging in it's foul nails. Knuckles shrieked, terrified, as his minds vision of the master emerald struck him.

His savour, his alter ego, realised that it's mortal counterpoint was in danger, and swopped down, tackling the creature of the guardian, skidding to the ground along with it. While the master emerald was reeling, the higher guardian grabbed onto one of it's wrists, oil pouring onto his gloves and burning them away as he gripped, and with a colossal roar of effort, he seized the creature and threw it through the clouds, the emerald disappearing into the gloomy mist.

" Knuckles" The creature said, it's voice echoed but warm, extending his hand and helping the echidna up. He stared at the mortal and said, with a saddened look on his face " You won't find happiness with this bat, she will bring you nothing but pain, and now, the rules have been broken, and now he is after you, and he will not rest until you have resumed your forgotten duty's and provided it's next guardian, a pure, echidna. There is but one who can stop this creature, but, with the hatred lingering in your heart, you cannot join with them. Only when your eyes have been opened, and you see the world through a clear mind, will you find what I have been showing you" Knuckles other half said, his eyes bearing deep into the echidna, filling him with a calm feeling. One that reassured him.

" Who can help me?" Knuckles asked. His alter ego looked down, his eyes shadowing, his expression darkening.

" I cannot tell you". Knuckles became angered again, and was about to demand why, but a deep roaring that shattered the air cut him of, and the scar free version of him looked panicky. He grabbed Knuckles by the arms, stared into his eyes, and said " Trust me, I know what is best for you". And with that , the echidna growled and threw Knuckles high into the air, the vision around him disappearing.

He shot upright, finding himself once again in Rouges bed. She was still asleep, her mouth still hanging open, as if not a moment had passed while he was in his own head. Knuckles was about to discount all he had seen as a dream, a very _realistic, graphic_ dream, but a dream non-the-less. Then , as if his own body was arguing against him, he twisted round to view Rouge once again, and his ribs shrieked in pain and he noticed a numb feeling in his head was subsiding, revealing a pain there too. He growled and gritted his teeth as he carefully got out of the bed, making his way over to the lipstick stained mirror. A shuffling sound from behind him made him turn around, but it was only Rouge, who twisted round under the covers, finding a better position, and settled down again.

Knuckles ignored this and lowered his head to view the top of it in the mirror. He was alarmed to see long, deep scratches running along the top of his head. He winced as they pounded, wanting attention. With a terrified realisation, he figured out that these scratches were exactly where his minds incarnation of the emerald had dug it's foul claws into him. Panicking, he checked his side, finding a large, ugly purple brooze where he had been pounded by the object he was supposed to be guarding..

Fear filled him as he realised the emeralds true power. It could even strike him in his dreams. What had he done wrong? Yes, he had forsaken his duties, but that had been going on for months now, surely the emerald would have acted before if it was upset? His thoughts turned to his lost virginity, surely the emerald wouldn't care if he was a virgin or not? The words of the ugly creature echoed in his mind ' Now she carries your seed in her undeserving womb'. His thoughts were stopped at this, wondering what the emerald meant by that in it's strange speech.

He shock his head as he thought of it. What did he care if the emerald was angry with him? He had all he needed, and that was that. Satisfied at his decision, Knuckles wondered over to the bed, where Rouge still slumbered. He wasn't entirely sure what to do with himself, until she awoke.

Letting out a small moan of contentment, Rouge rolled over, getting out of the bed and getting a dressing gown out from her wardrobe, slipping it over her naked body. Knuckles almost let out a moan of disappointment, but his light mood was enough for him to keep his cool. He wondered over, grinning hugely, and when she saw him she smiled. Even though her hair was smudged and damp in places, she still looked as beautiful as she ever did in Knuckles eyes. He reached out with his glove less hands, ready to take Rouge in a warm hug of affection. But as his hands reached their target, a terrifyingly familiar voice rang out in his head

_" Touch that hour, and you die"_. It was the voice of the emerald in his dream, even the varying voice tone was present, making it unbelievably obvious that the emerald was in fact angry with him and it was not his unstable imagination.

Knuckles recoiled away at the sound of it's voice, a sharp pain shooting through where the scratches lined his head. Rouge noticed something was wrong, and she asked in a concerned voice

" What's wrong Knuckles?". The echidna pushed the pain aside and shock his head, walking up and taking Rouge into a hug that was postponed by the emeralds interruption. There was a mild moment of pain, before all was well again. Holding Rouge just like a lover would, Knuckles felt content in her grasp, but then the voice of the emerald rang through his head again, chilling him with fright right down to the core

"_ I warned you Guardian. Now you'll never have your duty back, and I will punish both you and this vile piece of flesh you hold"_. Knuckles ignored the emerald silent warning, tightening his grip around Rouge in defiance.

Over the next few weeks however, as Rouge began to grow tired of both Knuckles and Shadow, both relationships began to decline. Although Rouge was now having sex with Shadow, Knuckles had stopped almost all physical contact altogether. It was unknown to Rouge that every time he tried to link with her, in any way, the emeralds voice would vibrate through his mind and cause a searing pain around his guardian ring, as if a reminder at what he had left. Shadow however, wasn't catching the hints that Rouge was going off him, and, after just over three months of dating, he found himself outside of an expensive jeweller, looking for a ring.

In his rational mind, he knew it was stupid. They had only been going out for a little over three months, and that he should wait for at least another three. But he had known her for years, and he had enough of being solitary, he had been for 70 years, and this made him feel like he had to take the chance at happiness and hope for the right answer.

There was no problem finding a ring. Rouge adored emerald green, so when an emerald and diamond encrusted ring caught his attention, it's shimmering green unmissable to the eye, he immediately snapped it up, despite the hefty price tag that came along with it.

Next, he had to work up the courage to offer it to her, knowing perfectly well he was supposed to make it a special night. When he was done booking an expensive dinner at a highly reserved restaurant, he rushed back to his apartment and began to prepare for the best night of his life.

Next he rang Rouge, told her that tonight they were going somewhere ' Special', just in case Rouge had decided to dress in one of her 'Lighter' costumes. Then, he waited, for hours , for Rouge to arrive.

He thought back to Maria, thinking about how she would feel about this. Yet, somehow, in his mind, he saw Maria's disappointment and couldn't get her to appreciate Rouge for how he saw her. He frowned at his doubt, beginning to wonder just what he was getting himself into.

In the restaurant, Rouge was very quite. This only aided his anxiety and doubt and he began to wonder if he had really made the wrong choice. Sure, Rouge was a good friend, a great sex partner, but, was she really going to be a good wife? A thousand questions rushed around in his mind and his heart thundered with panic, knowing that the moment of truth was approaching.

After the meal, throughout which both hedgehog and bat exchanged few words. Shadow led Rouge out into the courtyard of the hotel, finding a secluded spot hidden by finely shaped hedges, their still forms of horses dancing in the wind. The moon was full, the night was silence and everything around them was still with piece. Tonight, nature was on Shadows side and yet, through all his courage, he simply couldn't bring himself to do it. Rouge watched, her mind seemingly else where, as Shadow struggled with his mouth, not knowing what to say. So, it was a surprise, when Rouge spoke for him.

" Shadow, I don't think I can hide it anymore". Shadow, in his mind wrongly sensing where Rouge was leading him, eagerly burst out

" I know! I can't hide my love anymore Rouge". He placed his hands on her shoulders, staring deep into her eyes, just as all those horribly sappy movies had tutored him to do. Rouge smiled at him and yet, it still seemed as if her mind was elsewhere.

Unfaltered, Shadow continued "I can't live my life without having you by my side. I need you Rouge, everyday I think of you. I know it's early and that perhaps you could find a better man than me. But-" Shadow slowly got down on one knee, producing the small box that he had held in his sweaty hands. With his movement, Rouge realised just what was going on and her heart started rushing with disbelief, her mind questioning and re-questioning what her eyes were telling her. Never, never in all of her relationships, had one man proposed to her. It was a completely different experience, and it scared the soul out of her. For Shadow however, he realised he had just lied, he didn't think about her perhaps as much as he should. But the act was done and he knew he made the right decision when he uttered the every repeated words of

" Rouge, will you marry me?"

Authors notes

Its took a while, I know im sorry. Been very buisy. Keep the reveiws comming!


	9. Mongrol guardians

There was silence. The bats eyes stared, fixed, onto the lavish, sparkling ring that any girl would have been delighted to receive. But to her, it shocked her to the core. She hadn't realised Shadow was that serious. Was she even old enough to marry? What would Knuckles say? Did she even like Shadow enough to marry him? This moment was supposed to be one of the most special in her life, yet it felt, rushed, empty, meaningless. She was supposed to feel a warm rush of love for the person who had offered her his hand in her heart, but, all she felt was a sickly swirl of uncertainties well up in her stomach.

The feeling grew, a sour taste leaking into the corners of her mouth. Rouge realised what was happening and felt her throat clench in a gag. She dared not risk open her mouth and answer Shadows question, knowing she would probably spray him with vomit if she did. So she simply turned and ran, away from Shadow and his dreaded question and to the nearest toilet.

Meanwhile, Knuckles stood at the base of what he used to guard so loyally, thinking things through. Was it really true that this seemingly harmless object could invade his dreams and injure him without even touching him? He approached it, laying a hand on it's surface. It's touch was warm under his glove, almost as if it was begging him to return to his duty, the duty he was born for. But he knew he never would, he had Rouge, they had each others virginity, and they were happy. At least, when the emerald wasn't interfering.

The echidnas thoughts travelled to the other creature in his dream, the one who was fighting for Knuckles against the horrible creature that was his minds portrayal of the master emerald, or perhaps what the emerald really would look like with a physical body. Perhaps this creature was real in this existence too? His guardian angel of sorts? He wondered what other power could infiltrate his dreams like it had. He knew no other power like that like the master emerald, but perhaps there was one and it was on his side, this could only be a good thing.

But then there was it's warning about Rouge. How could she not bring him happiness? So far, almost everything she had done had bought him happiness, if not it fulfilled his sexual desire. How could such a kind hearted creature harm him like that?

Until Rouge did wrong, Knuckles decided he would the warning of his dream-dwelling alter ego. For all he knew it was his imagination playing tricks on him again.

Rouge felt energy less as she washed her face, rubbing her tired eyes with the waters soothing freshness. Grabbing a paper towel from the restaurants bathroom, she wiped away the stray vomit that had stuck to her face, groaning as she felt the feeling still there. She kept feeling nautious now and the time for a normal illness to be sustained was passing. She relaxed on the toilet seat, not using it, but simply resting. Leaning her head back, she sighed, feeling some relief from not having to stand anymore. But the uneasy feeling inside her was still there, and her thoughts travelled to the night almost two months ago when her and Knuckles had and encounter like no other. She felt shame that she had perhaps fallen pregnant again, knowing she would have to be more careful about these things in the future. She knew for sure it wasn't Shadows, he at least had the intelligence to had use protection when they had sex. She groaned and thought ' Great, first a marriage proposal and now this, what more could I need?'. This sought of thing was supposed to make her happy, but that was because those kind of people only had one partner. But Rouge had never been one to stick to one person, flitting in between people, finding she didn't really like any of them. Deep down she was just looking for ' The one'. Shadow just wasn't that one, but Knuckles, he had potential. But then again, most other guys she dated had potential, before they found out she was cheating. And what will he think of it if I am pregnant? Rouge thought, shuddering at his imagined response.

After a few more minuets rest, Rouge decided to find out if what she suspected was true first of all, not wanting to announce something and have it turn out not true.

Shadows trudged through the rain. Night had fallen. The sky's bright shine no longer helping him to see the bright side of his life. To him, it was the end. Rouge hadn't even had the decency to give him and answer. Obviously he didn't deserve such luxuries. He tried to think back to a point which he must have upset her, done something wrong which caused her to say no. Perhaps it was too soon? Or perhaps he was just to damn moody!

In anger at himself, he threw the ring away from him. The thousands of pounds worth of money simply gone like that. But Shadow didn't care if it was wasted.

' Perhaps I am meant to be a solitary creature. Perhaps it is not my fate to experience the happiness of friendship or love. Any time I had a true friend, they have been taken away form me. First Maria, and now this' He thought to himself, his thoughts sinking further and further into depression as the rain soaked through his thin layer of fur. A tear joined the rain drops that swam down his face, dripping down his chin and onto his tuft of white chest fur. For hours he wondered, his unplanned path reflecting the direction of his life.

That was until, he passed a small, podgy building, standing bunched together with a bunch of homes that were little more than shacks. He must have wondered to the outskirts of the city, where it's wealth no longer sustained the buildings beauty. The building sold alcohol. ' Why not?' Shadow thought, knowing he had nothing else left to live for, set forth into the pub.

Knuckles arrived back at Rouges club two days after he had left to find some answers. When he had , he told Rouge that he was going to destroy the master emerald, a commitment that said how he had left his old life behind for good. And in his mind when he left, he saw himself smashing it, leaving his old life forever, living with Rouge until he died. He seemed so certain of himself when he arrived. But when he lifted his fist, ready to strike, he just couldn't bear to bring the crushing blow down. The object that he had guarded all of his life, he couldn't just waste those years. Yet, the emerald was trying to harm him. Why did he hesitate?

Confused, Knuckles made his way back to Rouges club.

When he arrived mid-afternoon, the place was quite. So quite in fact, that Knuckles thought that perhaps Rouge wasn't even there. But then the sound of soft, regular breathing reached his sensitive ears, he realised the bat was in her bedroom. Knuckles smiled, glad to be reunited with his loved one and quietly made his way into her the room.

Rouge didn't seem to notice him approach. She was knelt in front of the forbidden box that Knuckles had once regretted to explore, her back to the doorway, her head bent down to look at something.

Curious, Knuckles crept round the corner, still not noticed by Rouge, wondering what she could be looking at that was so important that it made her temporarily deaf. He found out what it was soon after. The colour drained from his face was he inched his view ever sideways of the bat. Held in her hands, her blue ears staring intently at it, gripping it so hard Knuckles thought it would break, was a pregnancy test. Knuckles realised why Rouge was so zoned out, the clear, unreadable liquid in it's centre was changing colour, indicating the result.

Rouge took a deep breath, shuddering unsteadily as she gripped the test. Knuckles was frozen. One thought went through his head, one that kept repeating over and over again. 'Oh shit'. His heart beat galloped as the liquid swirled, slowly shifting, changing, making up it's mind. He felt dizzy, a sick feeling developing in his stomach. If this test came out positive, that would make Knuckles a father, to an illegitimate child, at the age of 19. Some how this thoughts sent his head spiralling out of control. Perhaps later he would think of the implications of his crime, but at this moment, all his minds attention was on the little stick held in his lovers hands. And just when Knuckles thought he began to see a result, Rouge moved one finger slightly, leaving her own view free but blocking Knuckles. He shifted as far as he could possibly go, dying to see what was happening, the little object that meant so much for his future.

But the result for Rouge had obviously arrived, as a expression of chaotic feelings seemed to melt her face. Trembling , she threw the test to the side, throwing herself of the floor and dashing into the on sweet bathroom. From behind it Knuckles heard soft sobs and gasp.

From her reaction, he could guess the colour easily. But his mind didn't want to believe it. Rouge was upset because she loved him so much and wasn't pregnant, his mind said to itself, although Knuckles hardly believed it. For a few minuets he stood frozen, eying the object from a distance, it's side rolled so he still couldn't see it. He seemed to think if he never saw the result, then he would never have to face the consequences.

He managed to build up the courage to move and slowly inched his way over to the round tube, squashing his eyes shut and picking it up with his first two fingers, holding it far away from him. He froze again, in a weird mime position, before creaking his eyes open, sneaking a shot at the colour.

He didn't believe what he saw, slamming his eyes shut. He looked again a few minuets later, seeing the same result. His heart pounded, his legs felt weak, he growled and threw the test across the room, where is rolled unnoticed on the floor, it's blue colouring clearly showing against the red carpet.

Knuckles had a lot to think about...

Authors notes

I keep forgetting to update. Sorry! Anyway, this may be going in a direction for knuxouge, but dont worry shadouge fans, shadow might have a chance for love yet!


	10. Two broken hearts

Authors notes

Before I begin I just want to say this story has nothing to do with heroes kin or robotnics discovery. This is in a different dimension or something, it has no relation at all. So please don't get them mixed up.

Disclaimer- Don't own any of the characters that appear in this chapter.

It was decided, Knuckles knew what he had to do. Sure they were both young, Knuckles not even reaching his 20th year yet, but they were in love and that was all that mattered. He was willing to accept the baby and in doing so, he was sure Rouge would be overjoyed.

A few weeks had passed since Knuckles had spied on Rouge and found out the news, yet the bat hadn't said anything to him about it, as if she wasn't pregnant at all. Knuckles would watch her carefully, increasing his protectiveness around her, showering her with love, hoping to pry the truth from her perhaps nervous mind. He noticed tiny variations in her behaviour, so unnoticeable that if he hadn't been looking he wouldn't have spotted them. She would eat more, despite sometimes complaining of feeling sick in the mornings. She quit her drinking, making Knuckles wonder if that was for the baby too. For the first time since he had begun living with her, Knuckles noticed that he would wake up before her, finding the bat sleeping peacefully in her bed. He longed to join her, but he knew if they would sleep together at night, Rouge would try to repeat the behaviour that caused her pregnancy in the first place and that would cause the searing scars the emerald had embedded into him to burn like white hot metal. He longed to caress her and his child within her, but he knew if he did that it would raise her suspicions. So for a while he was content to silently watch, watch as she unknowingly cared for his child, for filling it's needs.

But his patience wore thin. He longed to share his decision with Rouge and see her reaction. He longed to be able to watch her growth freely, rather than sneaking shots at her while she wasn't looking. So he approached her one day after she had stepped out of the bathroom, fur wet and waterlogged, a towel wrapped around her body, covering up the delights that lurked underneath. He smiled warmly, which she shunned with a rude glare of her own. Knuckles hadn't bothered to repeat their episode in the bed, one which she thoroughly enjoyed. So to her, he was becoming a pest around the house.

Unfazed by her lack of enthusiasm, Knuckles followed her into the bedroom, watching her dress herself. He pondered his words for a while, shyness suddenly presenting itself in the situation. How would he explain that he was spying on her?

" Rouge" he called softly. The responded with a small noise and he took that as a signal to continue. " I ... I've noticed some changes around here". The ignored him, although she appeared to hasten her effort to clothe herself. He hesitated, then urged " Is there something you want to tell me?"

" No" she replied bluntly, avoiding the question. Knuckles stood up, getting ready to offer his reassurance. He tried to keep his posture welcoming, but he didn't notice his stance turn a little angered, creating tension in the room.

" Rouge. These last few weeks, I've been watching you. I know what's going on. And I just wanted to say, it's ok , I will help you and that I'm not mad, not one bit". Rouge slipped on a top and turned around, looking him in the eyes and saying in a supposedly confused voice

" I don't know what your talking about". She turned around again, trying to busy herself with tasks around her room that didn't need attending to. Knuckles followed her closely, persistent.

" We can do this Rouge, you and I. It's early, I know but I really think I'm ready and I think you are too". Rouge sighed and looked at him again, replying with agitation

" What are saying?". Knuckles took a deep breath, this was it. It was almost a role reversal, the girl usually telling the boy the news, not the other way around. But Knuckles knew his child was growing inside of her, just as she did, the gap in communication just needed to be bridged.

" Your pregnant aren't you? I know you are. And we're going to have a child, which is fine. If it's with you Rouge, it's fine. I love you whatever happens " he said, reading his speech in his mind, waiting for Rouges rehearsed reaction. Unstemmed gratitude with mixed with uncertainess would swim together in her facial features, perhaps tears, of sadness and happiness, joy and fear. He was prepared for any of these reactions and he would accept anyone of them, it was just a natural process of going through something unexpected.

But Rouge didn't do any of those things. She didn't cry or sob, she didn't run the comfort of Knuckles open arms, rambling out her sorrows into his furry, red chest. She didn't erupt with joy at his calmness, or simply stare in wonder. What she did do however, worried Knuckles.

She laughed.

Unsure, Knuckles own mouth lifted a little, laughing back slightly, but with hollow intentions. This kind of laugh was not joyous, and seemed more evil in intentions. It was a wicked, superior laugh, filled with cold humour and smirking expressions. Knuckles didn't know what on earth to think.

" I suppose you found the test didn't you? I guess your more of a pervert than I realised, I'll have to be more careful with those things". Knuckles didn't reply, alarmed at the plural term she had used to the test and discouraged by her reaction. His mouth hung open in silence. She walked up to him, still smirking and said " You see Knucklehead, I'm really more of a player than a one man girl, and seeing that you now seem to care more about the rock than me, as well as how you really don't seem like the kind worthy of being a father. I saved us both the trouble of a child and got rid of it, just as I am going to get rid of you" she finished coldly. Knuckles simply stared, his mind trying to catch up form where it had been dropped in disbelief miles back. He went over each of Rouges words again in his head, trying to come up with another meaning over than the one that kept replaying in his head. Surely she hadn't meant what she had said. It was a mistake, surely? He and Rouge would be together forever and ever and ever...

" What do you mean. Got rid of...?" He mumbled, so scared to ask his voice was jarring. Rouge looked at him, apparently disgusted with his whimpish reaction.

" I take it even you have heard of abortion? It's a miracle in the modern world that let's girls get rid of unwanted pregnancies" she said sternly. Knuckles closed his mouth.

" It's gone?" He repeated in disbelief. Rouge nodded. Knuckles didn't seem to understand. " It's gone? Our child is gone? Our child is dead?" He said, half to himself. Rouge frowned and said coldly

" Its not that important. It was just a silly mistake". At her words, Knuckles felt his mind catch up with him. His mind swelled with delayed anger, his teeth tightened, crunching together his menacing jaws. His fists clenched, skin crushed together under the fabric of his gloves. His mind burned with confused anger, his breathing exploded into a rush of heaving, almost sob like gasps. His eyes weakened but his brow grew in strength, a strong frown appearing on his broken face. Without thinking, he grabbed Rouge by the scruff of her clothing, hoisting her up against the wall and constricting her body against the wall. He felt his eyes sting, threaten tears, but they were held back, through sheer disbelief, drained hope and hatred for the one he thought he loved.

" How!" He cried, his voice high, almost breaking " How could you kill our child? A life made by both of us? A symbol of our love! How could you just kill it! How!" He demanded, pinning her further against the wall, making it hard for her to breath and speak. In a rasped voice, Rouge struggled to reply

" I didn't think..." She began, but Knuckles bellowing roar deafened her weak voice out.

" That's right! You didn't think! And now it's dead! You killed it! MURDERER!" He screamed in utter, in controlled rage. Rouge sobbed and begged, but Knuckles was far beyond any reasoning. He threw her across the room with one swift thrust of his powerful arm. Her wings fanned out instinctively, trying to control her unplanned flight, but they did little but make her flight angle even more uneven and she crashed into the table, knocking the side of her face that had been struck the last time Knuckles lost it. The fuming echidna turned, still roaring, his teeth still bared, still angry. But when he saw Rouge, the old wound once again ripped open by his devastating throw, clutching her arm in obvious pain, he couldn't help but feel a rush of guilt, a feeling of complete helplessness as his animal side began to recede, letting the held back pain rush through. Rouge looked up at him, glaring in spite. She raised her unused hand and touched the blood on her face, her expression a mix of hatred and pain.

" I never loved you" she said , her voice ice cold, slowly saying the words, letting them each sink in and cause damage. A repayment to the physical damage he had inflicted on her. Knuckles stared at her for a few more seconds, feeling the guilt that bled from his heart and knowing he shouldn't be experiencing those emotions. How could he love someone who didn't love him? How could he love a murderer?

Everything built up, liking rising flood water, until Knuckles reached his emotional limit. Overwhelmed, he exploded into tears and rushed out, needing a realised from this place of pain. He didn't bother with the handle of the door, he just smashed his way through it, using his shoulder as a ram. He broke through the door so hard that he kept going, colliding with the wall opposite. Out of control, he staggered along the corridor, finding his way into the large hall, full as it always was with partying animal, dancing in time to the heavy bass, most probably all pissed, not a care in the world. Seeing them so care- free only worsened Knuckles own state, as he stumbled and blundered his way through the crowd, shoving men and ladies a like, his manners long gone, pushing his way through the crowds. It wasn't until he found his way outside, in the icy rain and moon less night, that he felt a hint of realise from the horrible world he had forced his way into. He didn't stop running, in fact, his pace doubled, tripled, as he pelted his way down the streets, wanting to be as far away from society as possible, wanting to die. He didn't know how long he was going for, all his knew was that his heart was broken, shatter, lying broken on Rouges floor, the hideous murderer who killed his child, the stupid thief who had stolen his heart and his life, broken him in every way possible, fooled him into giving her what he carried most sacred in his life. He felt dead. Now that he thought about it, he realised the other test he had found must have been hers to, she had never mentioned this ' friend ' again and now it just seemed like she was far more capable of doing such horrible things.

When he finally began running out of energy, his legs slowing to a moderate trot then stopping, collapsing underneath him, he didn't recognise any of the buildings around him, he was completely lost. But he didn't care. Both physical and emotional exhaustion overcame him and he felt himself falling, face first, into the concrete, falling unconscious, his soul dying in the rain.

Authors notes

Ah, the pivotal point in this story, or one of them. From this point on, I just want to warn you that things are going to get a little bit weird, strap yourselves in coz its going to be a hell of a bumpy ride.


	11. Bet she didnt expect that

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the characters featured in this chapter.

The thundering plummet of rain had dulled to a low drizzle, hours passing as it finally slowed. But the echidna hadn't moved from that spot. He was asleep. A sleep of sorrow. Every breath was like a new sigh, each more saddened than the last, each seeming to deflate him as the ruins of his life rusted around him. Knuckles had reached rock bottom and for now, nothing mattered.

" Didn't I tell you she would bring you nothing but pain?" A familiar voice rang out into his ears. Knuckles groaned at it's noise, lifting his soaking wet body of the slimy floor, fur matted through moisture. His eye lids struggled to open as he viewed the glowing twin of himself, the one he had seen in his dream, and now the one he was seeing in real life, a hallucination. It meant his illness was getting worse. " You can still see me, you must be unhappy" the clone said in a matter of factly tone. Knuckles snorted darkly as he knelt on the pavement, replying with a voice full of sarcasm.

" No! How can you tell that? The fact that I'm lying face down in the middle of a puddle in the night crying my eyes out maybe!" He scorned, his face scowled. The figure however, not seeming to notice his dark mood, chuckled and said

" No. Many people would enjoy that hobby. It could be quite an inspirational position, and some people cry because they are happy". The figure knelt down beside Knuckles, putting an arm around him, drawing him into an uncomfortable hug. Knuckles felt unease at the position but didn't bother shifting. " I know your unhappy because I can feel it, deep in my own heart. You must trust me from now on Knuckles". Again Knuckles snorted and said rudely

" And who the hell are you?". The twin of himself thought for a moment, before explaining

" I suppose you could call me your conscience". Knuckles sighed and rolled his eyes, saying in a tone melting with sarcasm

" Greeeeaaaat. A conscience, now I know I'm nuts". He took his view from the pavement and looked the figure directly in the face. His own face. Without the scars from the battles, without the injuries inflicted by the emerald. Surrounded by a glow of healthy emerald energy, not captive by it but controlling it. " Your not going to turn all 'jimmany cricket' on me are you? Not going to sing?". The figure looked at him with honest eyes and said

" I could sing if you wanted me to"

" Forget it" Knuckles mumbled. For a while the two sat in silence, the dying patter of the rain fading from their ears. Knuckles was thinking through the last few days, thought about his dead child, not even given a chance, thanks to that evil bat who he thought he loved. His heart swelled with renewed pain as he thought of all the moments they shared, knowing that each and everyone of the them was founded on a lie. " So, if your my conscience, what do I do now?" Knuckles asked, looking at the pavement again. The other echidna smiled, glad for his mortal companions co-operation and said in a warming voice

" I told you, The one who can help you will soon arrive and the leash that has been hovering over you for so long will finally be lifted. Your heart will be healed. I will be a long time coming, but I promise, eventually, this tortures life you have been leading will finally succumb. I promise you Knuckles, your true love will show themselves soon". Knuckles stared at him, thinking over his words, working at the possibility of him really being his conscience, his guardian angel. It would be funny for a guardian to have it's own guardian, but a good thing at the same time. After all, who else looked out for him over his whole life?

His 'guardian' suddenly looked alarmed. He looked at Knuckles with anxious eyes and said

" They are on their way right now. Trust them, but please, forgive their first impression". And with that he was gone. Knuckles stared, clue less for a second, before he was pulled out of the reality, realising he was still fact asleep, face down in the pavement. He awoke, his muzzle squashed into the rain. But just as he began to realise the whole guardian angel thing was a dream, something struck across his back and toppled over onto him. He heard it groan, probably a males voice. If he had not been so tired he would have been overwhelmed with embarrassment. But when he shoved the person of his back and struggled to his feet, turning his head over his shoulder to look at whoever had been careless enough to miss him, he flushed not with embarrassment, but anger.

" What are you doing?" The two shouted simultaneously. Knuckles grinded his teeth together and bellowed " You should watch where your going! Asshole!". The black hedgehog sneered and said in a spiteful voice

" At least I don't sleep face down in puddles!". Knuckles didn't have a comment for that one, he was too busy staring at the hedgehog he had grown to hate. But Shadow was in a state. His eyes were tired, drooping. His fur, greases, unwashed and matted. His ears lay flat against his head, a gesture of defeat and hopelessness. His gloves, brown and dirtied. His muzzle, thick with the shadow of a beard. He no longer looked like the ultimate life form that he was cracked up to be. Some how, Knuckles felt a twinge of sympathy. It wasn't hard when someone was in the state that he was in. He forgot all the instances when he had tried to perve on Rouge, because, to Knuckles, it seemed Rouge was probably worse. And he had slept with her...

" What happened to you?" Knuckles asked, a little more harshly than perhaps he should have. Shadows eyes dropped further as he looked at his stained gloves. He shrugged and said in a heavy voice, oozing with pain

" My heart has been stabbed, poisoned, run over and buried". Knuckles stared at him, showing no emotion but feeling something inside. He realised that was exactly how he felt, although his was more like being electrocuted as well. Putting a side his hatred for the moment, he began walking aside the hedgehog.

" What happened?" He asked. And so Shadow told him. Told him how he and Rouge had started going out, told him of the almost constant events between them, missing out all the erotic details but giving Knuckles enough to imagine their passion. Told him of his invite of Rouge to live with him and finally of the failed engagement, the thing that broke his heart the most. After that he had simply drifted around the city, not knowing what to do with himself, keeping his mind occupied with drink. He told Knuckles he hadn't been home in days.

Despite his anger at Shadow for dating Rouge at the same time he had, he didn't show it. There was jealousy in his heart, but in his mind he knew Shadow didn't know he was also dating the bat. He wasn't the one cheating, she was. He was just an innocent individual caught in the middle.

Knuckles decided not to tell Shadow about the abortion. He didn't think it would be wise, especially with the hedgehog looking as depressed as he was. It wasn't as if Knuckles wanted to bring back that memory either. It still stung his mind as if it were fresh.

But all the while Knuckles and Shadow talked, both realised they needed to get everything that had happened of their chests. They had both been betrayed, both could empathise with each other. It was strange to Knuckles, talking about such personal things to someone who , until recently, he couldn't stand. But his life had just been changed, no forced, into a different direction, leaving chaos spinning in it's wake. So Knuckles, at least for now, had no control on his life and had to simply let it flow his course.

Their conversation moved onto other things. What the other had been doing all these years they hadn't seen each other, what the others were up to. Shadows past came up. The hedgehog was happy to tell Knuckles about his life on the ark, or what he could remember of it. Gerald's inventions were discussed, their adventures, Sonic's continuous homelessness. The list continued long into the hours.

Again the night had began to fall. It was summer too, a late sunset. The time was getting past 10.00. But Knuckles hadn't noticed the dying light, he had been sucked into the conversation with Shadow. It wasn't as if it was a particularly good one either. But Knuckles realised, all the time he had spent with Rouge, he had hardly spoken a word to anyone else, except for his annoying therapist. He was almost a prisoner in her house. He wondered if others before him had fallen into that trap. If all that time when him and the others hadn't seen Rouge, she was busy, pleasing her newest boyfriend. His eyes watered as he thought of her excuse for the first pregnancy test he found. ' It's my friends, not mine'. Hmm, yeah right Rouge, how many other pregnancy tests did your 'friend' get through?' He thought to himself grimly. He was shocked at his own incompetence, not realising that Rouges love was in fact, hollow. It all clicked in his mind at that point. The reason why this conversation was so refreshing, so healing. It wasn't only the fact that this was the only decent conversation he had with anyone in years, but the fact that he could relieve all his thoughts, worries, feelings of betrayal, to someone who not only sympathised, but also understood. It was a remarkably good feeling.

But when Shadow stopped walking and announced " We're here" in front of a grotty looking building that could only be a pub, Knuckles frowned in confusion.

" Here? You didn't tell me we were going any where!" He objected from behind Shadow. The hedgehog turned and gave the echidna the kind of glare that only he could manage. It wasn't hateful, but it was slightly mocking.

" Did you think we were just going to walk around the city until Rouge comes running out and begged for forgiveness?" He said scornfully. Knuckles didn't answer. In truth, he hadn't known where they were going, or cared, the conversation with Shadow was enough to draw his mind away from the pain Rouge had put him through.

" So, why are we here?" Knuckles asked, when his brain finally managed to respond. Shadow smiled grimly and said

" Why else? To drown our sorrows of some sweet, sweet alcohol", and with that he pushed open the door and entered the pub, Knuckles following reluctantly.

" We shouldn't be drinking! It's the worse way to solve anything! It completely screws your life up!" Knuckles protested, but Shadow simply chuckled as if he were a little child, which, in a way to Shadow, he was.

" By the sounds of it, your life is already screwed up. Come on! Let your hair down! You deserve it!" Shadow said, running his fingers through Knuckles dreads to mess them up. Knuckles recoiled at Shadows touching, shocked at his sudden openness to the hedgehog. He caught Shadows eye, a questioning, but harsh look bore onto the hedgehog. But to Knuckles surprise, the hedgehog didn't stare but in the piercing, shocking, ice cold way that only he could manage. Instead , the hedgehogs mouth twitched. He struggled to contain it, then broke into a girlish giggle. Knuckles eyes almost feel out of his sockets. Shadow? Giggling? He never thought he would see the day. He shook of the shock and observed the hedgehog a little closer, noticing he was wobbling, his walk not as steady as Knuckles own. The echidna became nervous, realising that Shadow was probably not completely sober. He must have been so wrapped up in the conversation that he didn't notice. No wonder the hedgehog was being so hospitable to him. He was pissed.

The hedgehog wondered further into the pub, making his way over to the counter and lounging himself over one of the stools. The barman made his way over, cleaning a glass. He grinned a salesmen's grin when he saw Shadow, taking his clothe out of the class, ready for use with the black hedgehog.

" Hey!" He greeted, with enthusiasm that was just a little too cheesy to be real " It's our newest regular! What can I get you Blacky?". Knuckles was sure Shadow would punch his face in for calling him Blacky, but, instead, he simply ordered something he had never heard of in an awaiting tone. Knuckles, curious and worried, hesitantly made his way over to the bar and took a seat next to Shadow.

" One extra for my friend here" he ordered, noticing Knuckles take a seat. The bar man nodded and gave both of them a small glass each. Knuckles felt relief at the small dosage, but then noticed the label on the bottle, displaying a larger percentage of alcohol in it than he even thought possible. Shadow raised the glass to his face.

Knuckles panicked. He lunged to the side and smacked the glass out of Shadows hand, the liquid inside flying out of the hedgehogs glass and all down his face and chest. If his fur wasn't sticky enough.

Shadow however, didn't seem to notice. He still raised the glass to his lips and tried to drink. It was only when he realised he could taste nothing on his tongue, that he looked at Knuckles, confused.

" What did you do that for?" He asked, seemingly out of it already.

" Yeah, leave the feeler to his drink!" The barman injected from the background. The other lowlifes in the bar nodded in vague agreement, before going back to their own little world.

" Shadow! This isn't right! Your drinking yourself to death! This isn't the way to overcome your sadness!" Knuckles protested loudly in a strained voice. Shadow paid no attention and simply ordered another drink to replace that one that was now glistening across his chest. " Shadow please" Knuckles said pathetically, giving up already. The hedgehog stared at him for a little bit, his eyes half asleep it seemed. It almost looked as if Knuckles words were getting through, until he opened his mouth again and addressed the barman

" Give him a break, he just lost his girlfreind. The guys pretty beat up. Give him a free drink or two would ya?". The barman looked as if Shadow had suggested heracy

" Free drinks! How do you expect me to make a livin' if everyone comes and drink what they like without payin'? You wanna give him a free drink, pay for it yerself Blacky" the barman said in hostility. Shadow raised his hands in a gesture of defence and said

" All right! All right! I'll pay! Sheesh I thought we were friends" he said as he handed some money to the barman. He eagerly took it and replied flatly

" Of course were friends!" He started counting the money " But you still gotta pay". A glass was handed to Knuckles, another one to go along side his untouched first glass. He shuffled away from them, uncomfortable with the temptation the very sight of them conjured. Just the curiosity of what it would be like, what it would be like to drink such a renowned drink?

" Go on Knuckles, it's free! You disprove it" Shadow said, prompting from the sidelines. Knuckles came out of his trance.

" No!" He objected, then noticed the angered look on Shadows face. He cleared his throat " No, no thank you". Shadow stared at him hard.

" Just one"

" No!"

" It will make you feel better!"

" No it won't!"

" Coward". There was a pause in the argument.

" What?" Knuckles asked, not sure he heard right.

" I said coward. No wonder Rouge dumped you, if your afraid to try one little drink" Shadow said, agitating Knuckles. He growled in aggression and said

" I dumped her!". Shadow wasn't discouraged.

" But think of all the pain you told me you were holding inside. This will make you feel better, this will get rid of the pain" he said. Knuckles looked up from where he was slouched

" All of it?" He asked, his curiosity growing again.

" All of it" Shadow confirmed, a smirk of confidence on his face. Knuckles sighed, wondered if it was really as bad as it was supposed to be, and raised the small glass to his lips, Shadow smiling in the corner.

A few hours later

" And it wasn't even as if she even told me before she did it!" Knuckles wailed. Many of the people from the bar had left, leaving just Knuckles, Shadow, the barman and a depressed looking guy still there. It was probably for the best as well, as Knuckles had gone into hysterics. Rather than the alcohol making him feel better, as Shadow had promised, it had swerved him even deeper into depression, screwing up any control he had over his repent emotions before and turning him into a wreck. It had been going all right, Shadow offering Knuckles more drinks and Knuckles drinking them, keeping relative control over themselves. True, there had been some silly pranks, dirty talk and an unexceptable level of belching, but then, they were both drunk, that behaviour would have been appropriate. But then Shadow mentioned Rouge, and that's when everything started to go downhill.

At this point, Knuckles was slumped over the bar, crying into his arms, wailing for the whole world to hear about his dead child, with Shadows hand on his shoulder, patting sympathetically. The echidna shuddered, gasped and sniffed, then reached forward and took another sip of his drink. Shadow had still listened to all of his tales, just like before they had even arrived. But he was drunk now, he didn't seem to realise just how upset Knuckles must have been. So, instead of comforting words and gentle advise, he slapped Knuckles across the back, hard, and bellowed out in a boisterous voice

" Don't worry about it, Rouge was a slag anyway!". Knuckles looked up, his eyes blotched and red, showing his utter disbelief at Shadows behaviour. He took an unsteady breath and said in a deflated, annoyed voice

" Can't you be serious about this?". Shadow looked at him as if he were insane.

" Look , if you take life seriously all the time, then your never going to happy ever again. So what if Rouge dumped you..."

" I dumped her!"

" ...and so what if you betrayed what you've guarded all your life and gave up every hope of getting it back...

" Is this meant to be making me feel better?"

" I dunno, I forgot what I was supposed to be saying" Shadow replied and smiled stupidly. If Knuckles was his normal self, he would have realised that Shadow as acting far more childish than he ever had before. But then, Knuckles was crying like a women, so he wasn't exactly normal either.

" So, what now?" The echidna asked, realising he was finding it harder and harder to focus. Shadow stared dully at him, seeming to be thinking, slowly. Then, his eyes lit up, he launched himself of his chair, grabbed Knuckles arm and dragged him out of the bar.

" Hey! How about paying!" The barman shouted in a rage. Shadow ignored him and pelted out of the bar, Knuckles in tow. When they were out of the range if the place they hadn't paid for, Shadow slowed down to a fast trot, allowing Knuckles to keep up with his pace. The echidna puffed, caught up and said in a miffed and confused voice

" Where are we going?". Shadow smirked and said

" To get revenge on Rouge". The echidna raised an eyebrow and said

" And how are you gonna do that?". Shadows smirk grew and he giggled

" You'll see Knuckles" he smothered a laugh with his hand " It'll be fun".

Suddenly, before Knuckles had time to object, Shadow snapped up his wrist and dragged him across the street, pelting his furiously fast feet at their usual pre-sonic boom stage. Knuckles could do little more than hang on and brave the breeze, hoping that Shadows idea wasn't as crazy as he had a feeling it was.

When they arrived at club Rouge, Knuckles really thought Shadow was going to blow it up using one of his powerful chaos blasts, if he still had control over them that was. But to his relief/worry, Shadow went straight for the front entrance, kicking open the door and rushing in with Knuckles being helplessly dragged along. It was so late even the club was deserted, so Shadow had no trouble crossing the dance floor.

Unfortunately for Knuckles, the echidna realised just where they were heading. He had been there enough times to figure it out, Rouge's apartment.

" Er...Shadow, what are you doing?" Knuckles asked uneasily. Shadow smirked and kept dragging him, stopping just outside Rouges door. He turned to Knuckles and grinned.

" You'll see" he answers unhelpfully. Knuckles raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything else, but was shocked when Shadow, instead of knocking, simply kicked the door down. Knuckles mind sent up alarm bells, but, instead of shouting at Shadow to be quite, he simply giggled. It was strange, his body was starting to disobey his mind. But Knuckles didn't have time to think about that, because a few moments later he found he had been dragged into Rouges house and smashes through her bedroom door. His body now seemed to be frozen. He could do nothing to stop whatever crazy thing Shadow had planned as his revenge.

" Hey slag!" Shadow shouted loud enough to wake up the sleeping bat, still in her bed. Rouge stirred, wriggled around a little and sleepily half opened her eyes. They shot to their fullest angle when she saw just who had bust into her flat. Not one of her exes, but two. And not just any too, so far her most loving and involved lovers.

" Shadow! Knuckles!" Rouge said in shock, trying to get over the realisation of what was probably one of the worst circumstances she could get herself into. It was more like a dream than anything that could happen in real life.

But what Shadow would do did next, would surprise her even more than she thought possible.

First, he linked arms with Knuckles, something that mildly bewildered her. Knuckles too, was a little confused, but then he figured that Shadow was probably getting ready to drag him along for a fast escape, just in case the bat got nasty.

" We just dropped by to tell you that me and Knuckles don't need you!" Shadow said, although he struggled with some words because of the alcohol circulating his blood. Knuckles began to see the fun in the situation and smirked slightly, although inside he felt pretty awful, seeing the bat that broke his heart again so soon wasn't helping the healing process. But Shadow seemed to be thoughrally enjoying himself, grinning stupidly. He swayed and almost feel, clinging onto Knuckles steadier arm for support. Somewhat over the initial shock, Rouge managed to raise an eyebrow and ask in a suspicious voice

" Shadow, are you drunk?". The black hedgehog regained his balance, smiled sheepishly at Knuckles, who gave a weak one back. Completely ignoring Rouge, he continued

" And just to prove we don't need you, I wanna say we both found someone else! Someone better than you!" He proclaimed proudly. Rouge didn't really look like she cared, but Knuckles was once again confused.

" We have?" He asked quietly, turning to Shadow, who looked like he would burst from happiness. The hedgehog nodded.

" So? I don't care. Get out of my house!" Rouge said, getting impatient. She didn't really want to come out from under the covers, as she still didn't wear any underwear under her night clothes for bed. Shadow smirked even more and lolled around like an idiot.

" Well don't you wanna know who we've found?" He said, urging her on. Rouge sighed and said in an impatient voice

" Who?". Shadow turned round to face Knuckles, who had his own eyes on Rouge and wasn't paying attention to what Shadow was doing. But the hedgehog seemed fixated on the echidna.

" Each other!" He proclaimed proudly. Rouge shot up and yelled

" What!". Knuckles vaguely heard what Shadow had heard, but it didn't register in his brain. However, the message got through when Shadow leant forward, seemingly as quick as lightening, and placed his lips on Knuckles, leaning into him and giving him a deep kiss.

Authors notes

Don't flame me!

Also, im going to be forever updating lately becuase i am in the middle of my exams. I'm really sorry but it's important. i need to pass at least 4 to get into college!

So please be patient with me. Thank you my readers.


	12. The wrong path

That kiss was all the last thing Knuckles remembered from that night. Past that, it all got a bit blurry. He heard Rouges voice, more giggling, presumably from Shadow, then...nothing, his mind had become a complete blank. So when he awoke in an unfamiliar bed, with no indication of how he had got their or who's bed it was, Knuckles couldn't help but panic and let out a surprised scream, regretting it afterwards. His pounding head was the only thing that seemed sharp now, everything else was slow, tired, fuzzy. His eyes seemed matted together with some sticky glue, his throat dry. He coughed heavily to clear the statement phlegm that had gathered there, then reached out with his hands, stretching his stiff body. But as his hand travelled further along, it came into contact with something. Something solid...

Knuckles froze. He didn't know how or what was in the bed with him, but he had a few vague ideas, all which didn't seem good. He reached out and touched the thing again, trying to decipher what it was. But before his slow brain could come up with an answer, he heard Shadows voice boom out through the room, no longer cheerful and rebel like, which was what the previous night had been like but menacing and full of anger.

" What are you doing in my bed!" He shouted, but groaned afterwards and clutched his head. Knuckles sat up, finding the hedgehog stood by the door frame, massaging his forehead and leaning against the frame for support. Knuckles put his hand round the object and found it was just a book. Apparently Shadow liked to read before he went to bed and didn't put the books back. Never the less it was a relief that he was alone in the bed. But then another question emerged in his head. " Why are you even in my house?" Shadow said, asking the question before Knuckles could. The poor animal had no memory of how he had got out of Rouges apartment, let alone into Shadows, so all he could do was shrug. Apparently though, a shrug wasn't a good enough answer for the now even grumpier hung over hedgehog. He let go off the door frame, stormed over and threw the covers off of the bed. " Out!" He commanded. Knuckles got up quickly, feeling rusty, then remembered his last memory. He didn't want to piss off and already pissed of hedgehog, but on the other hand, he knew this would probably be the last opportunity to ask.

When Knuckles didn't move, Shadow starting approaching him menacingly, ready to pummel the echidna out of his house if necessary. However, the hedgehog was halted in his tracks when Knuckles asked

" Why did you kiss me?". There was silence. Shadow stared at Knuckles, wide eyed, mouth closed. His expression cold but confused at the same time. For a while Knuckles thought he wasn't going to answer, but when he did, he might as well not bothered.

" I didn't. You must have dreamt it. Now get the fuck out of my house!" Shadow commanded, screaming the last sentence in his speech. Knuckles didn't need any more encouragement and bolted out of the house before he got a suntan chaos blast style.

It didn't dawn on Knuckles until he had walked a few blocks , deep in thought about Shadows answer, that he no longer had a place to stay. He couldn't go back to Rouges now, even if that kiss was a dream, he wouldn't want to go anywhere near that bat anymore and it was obvious he wasn't welcomed at Shadows. He wandered for a while, looking for a hotel. But then realising, he didn't even have any money. People stared at him as he walked alone, and he began to feel a degree of self loathing again. He began to think as he walked pointlessly. Perhaps Shadow was right, maybe the kiss was a dream, he had dreamed of strange things like before. Then there was his 'conscience', your true love will soon reveal themselves? Yeah, like there just rushing over to find me now. He must still be sick. He thought of the emerald, he couldn't go back to that...could he? He reached up and felt the scars on his forehead, wondering at their real origin, wondering what he could possibly do now.

But, just as he removed his hand, his scars set alight again, sending horrible pain shooting through his head and numbing his brain. The creature he had seen once in his dream materialised out of the air, half solid and glowing with horrible pulsating, purple light. Knuckles shrank back, looking round in panic and seeing no-one else even paying attention to the demon, they simply walked by it as if it a horrible, slimy, dragon-like creature with no legs and a cracked emerald embedded into his chest was something normal. The pain in his head subsided and he was able to view the creature in an upright posture. It sneered at him, in anger, it's face flowing like it was liquid. Knuckles gulped, knowing he had done wrong, knowing the emerald had come to teach him a lesson. He felt the bruise on his side reappearing. The emeralds lessons were always harsh ones.

" yOU ArE no LONGEr mY guArdiAn, YoU wOrthLeSS PeICe oF dIsCUstiNG fLEsh" The emerald spoke in it's strange, semi- telepathic way. Still no-one noticed. But Knuckles almost jumped for joy at the freedom that he thought the emerald had just offered him, but then he reconsidered it. He had done wrong and the emerald was rewarding him? There must be more to this, he thought to himself. " BUt I StiLL hAVe PoWer oVEr yOU, And I neEd AnoTHer gUardIAn, one FRom yOur blOOd" the emerald said, moving his head so it pointed in another direction. Knuckles followed it's eyes, seeing some echidna wondering around, looking in the shop stores. She didn't look too great either, a little overdone in make up. Knuckles didn't get what the emerald meant at first, but then realised he wanted Knuckles to get some random girl pregnant so it had another guardian.

" I'm not sleeping with her!" Knuckles yelled aloud, causing people to stare and laugh at him. To them, it looked like he was talking to himself. It wouldn't be the first time.

" If You DO nOT MakE aN HeIR GuArdiAN-" The emerald threatened, but was cut of by his former guardian, who had suddenly spotted a weakness in his once all powerful master.

" You'll what?" Knuckles questioned, agitating the emerald. Right now, he couldn't careless if people were staring, he was getting the upper hand on the emerald, something he was though rally enjoying. " Kill me? If you do that, _master_, then who will create the next guardian. Let's face it, you need me". The emerald remained silent, Knuckles decided he wanted to rub it in further, enjoying the fact he had some power over the emerald for the first time. " And besides, you had a guardian. Rouge was pregnant! And it was mine! So why didn't you use that? Oh mighty one!" Knuckles said smugly, being sarcastic and glad for it. The emerald showed no emotion, again not speaking. " I'll tell you why, because you don't have as much control over things than you would like me to think. That's why you didn't stop Rouge from having the abortion! You couldn't!"

" tHE bAt WILl Be PunISed fOr Her criMES" the emerald said blankly. If it was feeling the strain, it wasn't showing it. But then, Knuckles doubted it could. The echidna laughed at what the emerald had said.

" Fine, I hate her anyway" Knuckles said in an uncaring voice, turning round and walking away from the emerald. It let out a growl and said in it's echoey voice

" CoME bAcK guARdiAN" it commanded, but Knuckles ignored it and kept walking. Then, without warning, the scars along his head fired up again, more intense than he had ever felt them burn before, and he collapsed against the pavement, writhing in agony. He tried to fight it's force with his own chaos strength, but it proved worthless and draining. Knuckles turned over and looked at the looming emerald, staring him in the eye, his fear gone.

" You can't do anything to me" the former guardian muttered, meaning every word. The emerald recoiled slightly, sizzled and boiled seemingly in rage, then the pain ceased. Knuckles looked up the emerald in shock as a figure that was becoming familiar tackled it. His alter ego was half solid too, but that didn't stop it from wrestling the emerald to the ground. From where he fought the creature looked up and shouted to Knuckles, straining

" Fight the emerald Knuckles!". The emerald creature threw his guardian off, giving Knuckles an evil filled stare, then saying in a voice far deeper than it's usual and far more forbidding

" I WILL FIND A WAY" and with that, they both disappeared, leaving Knuckles alone in the middle of the street, surrounded by a group of people, staring at him. He looked round in confusion and agitation.

" Is Rouge really pregnant?" One asked. Another piped up and added

" And it's yours?"

" Why were you on the floor?" A little kid squeaked from the front of the crowd. Knuckled grew more agitated at these stupid people who didn't understand his life and ignored them, shoving his way out of the ring that had surrounded him and marching down the street, determined to get away from everything. As he passed them he heard a son ask his father

" What's wrong with that man daddy?"

" He's just some crazy person, leave him alone" the dad answered, thinking Knuckles couldn't hear. A tear came to echidnas eye, hating the words just used to describe him but wondering if it was true. Was he really going crazy?

Shadow couldn't settle his mind. After calming down from the initial shock of finding Knuckles asleep in his bed and recovering from the previous nights hangover, Shadow had more time to think about things more sensibly. He had woken up the morning lounged in a kitchen chair, giving him an aching back as well as a huge headache, so his mood was not the best. It worsened when Knuckles asked about the kiss they shared, although it was mostly Shadows doing, no matter how much he hated admit it. He had lied to echidna, saying it was a dream, but he knew it had happened and he felt so much shame because of it. He had sunk to an all new low, even worse than his weeks of continues drinking. But that wasn't the reason the kiss had bothered him so much, it was a feeling remembered from that night, a feeling of attraction towards the echidna. The brooding hedgehog had never had feelings like that for a guy before, even while drunk. So remembering them in the morning freaked him out, it was understandable. That was he had reacted so harshly to the echidna sleeping in his bed, perhaps it was overly harsh. He needed to sought things out. He took a look at himself in the mirror, saw the mess he was in. His fur, unwashed, clumped and greasy. Bloodshot eyes. His white patch of fur now grey with grime. It wasn't the greatest sight to see. He had to stop his drinking, before he did something he would really regret. He needed to turn his life around, perhaps first, by apologising to Knuckles.

The very thought of confronting the echidna made him want to drink again, and was encouraged further by the collection of half empty liquor bottles that had found their way onto his table. He knew he would be tempted to drink them. So while his ' turn your life around' phrase lasted, he grabbed every one of them and threw them out into the trash, where they broke and shattered and the liquid within them drained away. There would be no more drinking.

It took a while for Shadow to even get out of the house. In his mind, he needed to smarten himself up before confronting Knuckles, and that meant a hell of a long shower, massaging his eyes, watching his gloves and shoes and having a good shave. After all that was done he insisted on getting a proper meal into himself, because he swore he had been living off of greasy pub food for the last few weeks. After that he decided his breath smelt, so spent ages brushing them. He realised he was delaying, but why? He had no reason to be nervous around the echidna did he? Surely not.

When he finally coaxed himself out of the door, chewing a mint, he realised he didn't even know what to say to Knuckles. How would he explain everything that had happened? How would be explain the kiss?

Meanwhile, Knuckles had started his long trek back to angel island. He hated himself for doing it, but he had no other place to go. He couldn't stay in the city, he had no money and didn't fancy living like a tramp for the rest of his life. And angel island was the only place where you didn't get taxed just for living, but then there was the emerald...

" Fight it, don't go back" He heard his own voice echo in his head. He ignored it, wishing he could just go back to angel island and rot away in piece, without his own mind telling him what to do. He knew he was getting sicker and sicker...

" Knuckles!" He heard a voice shout. He swore it was Shadows. He ignored it. His mind was probably playing tricks again, why would Shadow be calling him? Curiosity got the better of him when he heard the voice call again, and he turned round to see a huge cloud of kicked up dust rushing towards him, at it's centre was indeed Shadow the hedgehog, running at full pelt towards him. He looked angry.

Shadow saw Knuckles, quickening his pace to reach him in time. The echidna looked like he was leaving the city, but Shadow had to apologise before he left forever. But he still had no idea what to say. He scowled angrily at himself, at his lack of knowledge in conversation, something Rouge really hadn't help him with. What was he going to do?

' He's gonna' kill me!' Knuckles thought, alarmed. Shadow was rushing up with a look of bloodthirstiness in his eye, coming straight for Knuckles and looking imposing. Knuckles backed away in fear, what had he done now? As Shadow reached closer and closer, Knuckles started to back away, first walking, then running at full pelt. But he knew even at his best speed he couldn't out run Shadow. And so, in what seemed to be far to shorter time, Shadow caught up with him, cutting off his path. Knuckles skidded to a stop, but not quick enough, he collided with Shadow full force and knocked them both over. Knuckles gulped, thinking he was really in for it now, but, to his surprise, Shadow got up, dusted himself off, and offered Knuckles his hand. Knuckles took it, still reluctant, as Shadow helped him up. Perhaps it's the calm before the storm, Knuckles thought to himself, but Shadow looked perfectly fine. His mood seemed to have shifted back to a calm, perhaps even wary one. Knuckles frowned, why did Shadow look so nervous?

" Knuckles, I want to apologise"

" Huh?" Knuckles couldn't help but let slip out stupidly. Shadow looked down, avoiding his eyes and said

" I'm sorry for being so harsh on you this morning. I was a bit shocked, you were in my bed"

" I'm sorry! I don't know how I got there! Honest!" Knuckles said, launching himself into an apology seeing as Shadow seemed to be in the right mood for it.

" I do" Shadow said, lowering his head, in shame. Knuckles raised an eyebrow, wondering if that kiss was real and if Shadow, in his better mood, would be confirming it. Sadly, the hedgehog spoke no more words about any relationship hints between the two and instead sniggered and said " You should have seen the look on Rouge's face" he drifted off as if in a dream. Knuckles stared at him.

" So we didn't...?"

" No!" Shadow confirmed sharply, then cleared his throat and said in a more controlled voice " Now, you look lost. I know you can't live with Rouge anymore, but I may have a place for you to stay" Knuckles became more interested. Shadow must have remember their conversation from last night, more than that, he figured out that Shadow must be feeling some sought of sympathy towards himself, something he was grateful for, and too think they were once rivals chasing after Rouge. That stupid bat, she could have been keeping us apart, perhaps we'll be great friends one day...' Knuckles began to go off in a dream land as he followed Shadow, thinking now he had a friend to rest on if things got to tough for him on his own.

But, after Shadow showed him around a small flat in a poorer part of town and left to go back to his house, Knuckles never saw him again. He spent weeks wondering in and out, doing the job Shadow had found for him, trying to figure out the cities complex tax requests, watching TV even. But all too soon he grew bored, he needed company, that was why he wanted to stay in the city in the first place. If he wanted a life of solitude, he would be back on the island by now, hallucinating images of Sonic and Shadow and Rouge. His 'conscience' continued to bother him, saying his he had taken the wrong path. He ignored it, but slowly, he grew annoyed at his own head, and ended up resorting to bashing it against the wall, smashing it with his own fists. After one particularly devastating fit of maddened rage, he drew blood. The cool trickle of it seemed to cool his mind, steaming down the boiling fury and reducing his mood straight down into the gutter. He feel on his knees, the single trail of blood dripping over his eyes and ran along his muzzle. He began to cry, silently, no moans of despair. His shoulders shook and he collapsed onto the ground, a loneliness so strong overcoming him that he didn't want to ever move again, he just wanted to lay there and die.

" Why don't you go and see him?" His glowing twin said, appearing out of nowhere. Knuckles grunted but didn't give a sensible reply, shuffling round so his back faced the hallucination. He was in no mood to talk to himself again. " Your too nervous to face him, afraid he won't like you" it said. Knuckles visibly ignored it, but in his head he was beginning to realise what his twin said was true, he was afraid to talk to Shadow, why? He didn't know. It wasn't as if Shadow was any threat to him, but he supposed that the hedgehog didn't want to know him, if he did he would have visited, right?

" I'm not destined to have any anybody, am I ?" Knuckles said, half to talking to himself and half to his conscience, which in a way, was the same thing. " I never knew my family, I was chosen to guard an emerald in isolation for the whole of my life, and even when I do break the vow and go to where there's people, I can't talk to any of them because I don't know how to socialise. Face it, I'm supposed to be alone, for all of my life. No-one will ever love me"

" Someone already does. They just don't know it, give it time Knuckles, and do what you want to do, it's got to be better than rotting away in here". Knuckles looked up, feeling he had hit rock bottom and he couldn't do anything to make it worse. He got up, cleaned his cut, masked it with and plaster, and set out, not even bothering to lock the door. It wasn't as if he had anything valuable in there anyway. Besides, he knew what he was going to do. " Going to see Shadow?" His glowing clone echoed in his mind. Knuckles nodded and the twin let out an uncharacteristically big grin. Knuckles raised an eyebrow.

" What?". The twin beamed and didn't answer, then vanished altogether from sight as Knuckles reached the front door. Goddammit why was he so nervous? He thought as he reached up and rung the doorbell, the chiming sound echoing through the hedgehogs house...

Authors notes

I know that's a horrible place to end it but I'm tired and if I didn't end it there it would have stretched on forever and ever. Thank you for your patience. Btw, the next chapter to Robotnics discovery should be up soon, I just having trouble getting inspiration.


	13. You complete me

Shadow had been hating himself these last few weeks. Ever since breaking up with Rouge, he felt a great blanket of loneliness had enveloped him, only showing a slight hint of lifting itself when he found Knuckles, lying alone in the rain. Yet, despite the promise of a friend, one that he had been waiting for so badly for years and years, Shadow found himself avoiding the red echidna. Often, he had found himself in front of Knuckles new flat, ringing the doorbell and waiting, only to find his confidence sucked away and being forced to run away, the sound of Knuckles unhappy cussing reaching his ears as he fled. He hated himself for becoming nervous for no reason and annoying the echidna at the same time. He finally gave up, knowing if he did it anymore he would ruin any chances of talking to the echidna again. Since then, he had mostly stayed in his apartment. It wasn't as if he had a job or girlfriend to take up his time with, or that he had any where else to go. So that was where he stayed, thinking over his entire life. Why had he chosen to live in the city in the first place? The answer was printed in the back of his mind like a safety sign hung on the wall. He came because he wanted to be with the people he knew, Rouge, Sonic, Amy, the Chaotix. But, as he found out, Sonic didn't really live in the city. As a matter of fact, he didn't really live any where. Amy was too busy chasing Sonic, the Chaotix were always working. The only one he really spent time with was Rouge, and it turned out that wasn't the brightest move either. He was so lonely and needed a companion, just like Knuckles. So then why was he so hesitant to talk to him? He wondered to himself as he sped along a long plain that excited a few miles outside of the city. Like Sonic, he liked to get away from it all to clear his head, and , like Sonic, he had the ability to go any where, any time as quick as a flash. But unknown to him, at that exact time, a certain echidna was standing at his doorstep, waiting to meet him.

The doorbell rung through the house, no answer. Knuckles tried again, still no answer. He frowned in disappointment, turning round and getting ready to trudge back home, his mood rapidly darkening. It didn't help when his twin reappeared in his vision. But what the annoyance had to say caught Knuckles attention, as well as his curiosity.

" Don't give up hope yet". Knuckles pondered for a second, then replied in an anxious and slightly annoyed tone

" What's that supposed to mean?". But by the time the words had escaped his mouth, his guardian had gone. Knuckles was miffed by now, and he turned around again and began to storm off in a rage. He reached his flat tower, but the sight of it depressed him even more, so instead of going home, he kept walking, eventually reaching the edge of the city and walking past it. He felt so lonely and angered by the fact he still found adequate company in his own head, just wishing there was someone he could spend some time with that wasn't a figment of his imagination. Shadow had let him down, god knows where the hedgehog had got to, but he definitely wasn't at home. The night had begun to fall again, and Knuckles closed his eyes, feeling the still wind in his face as he walked, further out still, until he came to a spot which was particularly to his liking. It was away from the main body of the city, where nature still had some grip on the surroundings. A river cut it's way down a narrow street, a willow tree gracefully sweeping over it, it's leaning branches just dipping elegantly in the water. The water reflected the moonlight mystically, giving it a silver hue, almost like it's soul was shimmering atop it's surface. The place reminded Knuckles of angel island at night, before he drove himself away from the emeralds captive grip. He had forgotten how peaceful nature could be at night, the silence swimming with semi darkness creating an image of twisted heaven. He glanced at the moon, half way full and radiant with pride. A soft wind swept through Knuckles dreads and caressed his dreads with love. The echidna let out a sigh, feeling utterly at peace for one in his life. Under the majestic willow, there was darkness. A shadow cast not by the sun, but the moon in it's half full glory. The darkness reminded him of Shadow, he could almost imagine the hedgehog coming out from that blanket of blackness, his dark coat melting away into the night, like he was part of the darkness itself. The image instance Knuckles, and he found himself suddenly wishing that Shadow were there. He remembered his guardians words ' Don't give up yet', but was he referring to today ...or his entire life?

Shadow had stopped in the shade of a towering cliff, resting, buried in the shadows of it's moon blocking form, looking out at the stretch of blackness that was before him, the plains of the desert. Although this place was soothing enough, it didn't clear his mind enough for him to realize what he truly wanted. There was something about the echidna that kept nagging in his mind. The thought of that red animals just wouldn't go away. He thought it was jealously, or maybe even stress or boredom. But, as the days wore on and the confused feelings didn't stop, he decided that a run was needed to clear his head, somewhere he could be alone with his own thoughts, somewhere no-one could disturb him while he came up with the answer. But alas, the cold desert sands couldn't cool his raging, rampaging mind, even after trying to go into a state of half dreaming, his own form of meditation. Nothing was shifting the thick murk of confusion. A shiver rattled through him like a slice of ice slammed through his veins, and he decided that the desert was too cold for him, in temperature and in appearance. He got up, un-cramped his stiff legs, then began to run again, back to the city.

Once the streets were back in his view, he started to head to the one place he knew could relax him. A forest at the edge of the city, a narrow, quite street. The forest began with an arching willow tree, it's quill like branches dipping in the silvery waters hue. He loved that place, and something told him that tonight, it would be even more enchanting.

Still at full pelt, Shadow began negotiating the narrow, edge of city streets. During the day he would never do this, as he would almost certainly crash into any unsuspecting person that got in his running paths way. However, at this late hour, no one was free to explore their surroundings at night, witnessing the spectacular beauty of their own world at night, the errie wonderousness.

Another street corner, and he'd be there, Shadow thought as he continued to sprint. He turned the corner to the narrow valley, finding himself skid around the tight corner, loosing his fitting as his jest deactivated, leaving him with no method of breaking. He spun, dazed for a few second, before something made contact with him, or, rather, he made contact with something else, hard. The thing he had slammed into buckled and let out a surprised shriek, loosing it's own footing as the momentum from Shadows 150 mile an hour dash knocked them both into the air . They tangled in a kind of mesh of body parts, sliding helplessly down the bank of the shallow river, eventually stopping when the two hit the surface of the lake, shattering it's silver hue.

It took a while for Shadow to register that his head was resting against a body part of another creature, it's fur wet and slick. He lifted his head to see his eyes in contact with the mystic symbol of the guardian, no less stunning even though it was wet. When he figured out he was straddled across Knuckles, the echidna who had occupied his thoughts during half the last month, he promptly picked himself up, proceeding to apologize humbly, but then realized something was wrong. The echidna wasn't moving, and his eyes were closed, his breaths weak. Shadow panicked a little and nervously picked up the creature, hoisting him over his shoulder like he were no more than a sack of feathers. Carefully, he climbed out of the river, choosing the side of the willow tree, leading Knuckles into it's over seeing darkness.

Carefully, he laid the echidna down, resting his head on his own lap. He took a shacking hand and placed it on his chest, first covering the guardian mark, then slowly stroking the echidna, hoping to persuade him to wake up.

It worked. The holding hedgehog felt a wash of relief at his waking . The echidna eyes inched open, revealing his magnificent purple pupils beneath. They grew through the surroundings of darkness, but still Knuckles couldn't see who was holding him. A hand on his shoulder, another on his chest, caressing with care, tracing his sacred symbol. The wind slithered around them, calming him where he would usually be shocked. His eyes strained yet could not see the black hedgehog that held him. But Knuckles knew it was him, he just knew it.

" Knuckles" uttered Shadow almost silently, through his unseen mouth. Knuckles didn't know it, but the hedgehog was gazing fondly at Knuckles, the faint outline of red and those deep, mystical eyes, so wide and innocent, yet they held so much rage inside.

Knuckles felt his head sway a little, and blinked to slay the movement. He gave a small, peaceful smile and mumbled in a vague voice

" I think something hit me... "he said, baring his teeth in a tiny, lopsided grin. Shadows eyes opened a little more, and his hand come off Knuckles shoulder, moving to his long dreads. With one swift movement, he slid his hands through them. Knuckles shivered at the tingling he felt at Shadows touch. For now, Shadow wasn't himself, he was an invisible god, a gentle creature that could melt into the darkness, with power to strick away all the filth in someone's mind with his simple touch. And Knuckles was a tiny, helpless being, begging with an innocent soul for the help of the dark one, begging for a reprive from his torturous life. Something Shadow, right now, with the willow tree guarding them, the moons half open eye watching with piece, the settling water flowing, it's skin shinning with the moon, he was willing to do. Willing to help Knuckles. The victim. The guardian.

" You hit your head Knuckles, your not thinking straight. Just rest" he whispered softly, stroking Knuckles dreads slowly " Rest..." He soothed, and Knuckles sighed at his touch. Insane or not, Knuckles was willing to let this situation go on. Shadow was bringing a degree of peace that he had never felt in his life.

It was as if the silent song of the wind and the tinge of the silver water cleared his thoughts, ordered them and gave them meaning, for now Shadow knew just what he wanted, what he needed. His companionship, his friend, his lover, all could be found in the animal that had literally fallen into his grasp. He knew they could cure each other, wash away the ills of mind that both had suffered. Shadow almost declared his feeling a loud, and he would have done, if Knuckles hadn't spoken first, his soft whisper of words so low they wouldn't have been heard in the hectic rush of the day.

" Ever since I can remember, I've had something missing inside of me, a hole that couldn't be filled, no matter how much a fought or how much I made love. Not even the emerald could fill it, and I thought nothing ever would. But now, here, with you, it's closing, healing. I feel as if I'm whole for the first time in my life". Knuckles couldn't tell what Shadow was thinking. But the dark ones face had softened, not smiling, but settled, intently staring at Knuckles as he spoke, taking every word as the truth. Without thinking about it, Shadow slid forward, his body shifting closer to Knuckles, as the echidna mirrored the movement as they moved as one, merged in motion as they neared each other. They stopped, both staring into blackness, the darkness stealing their sight but heightening their other senses, capturing them in a world of forfillment, as the willow tree locked them away in eternal embrace. They were so close now, electricity seemingly course between their two bodies, connecting the two together in an energy embrace. And, just before their lips slid together in a dance of love, Knuckles uttered three words, three words that would change his life forever

" You complete me" he said, utterting the truth, what he felt inside.

And with that, they kissed. Their bodies connected physically and spiritually, their half formed souls merging and melding as one, one body, one existence. And as they dove deeper and deeper into each others spirits they melted, together into the darkness, becoming one, silently flying through the blackness, together, as one soul with a thousand feelings, as free as the still and silent wind.

Authors notes

OMG! You won't believe how many drafts of this chapter I did! I was determined to get it perfect and some how it just wasn't cutting it. So I stayed off the Internet, set my music on, and got to work, determined that it would become magical. And I believe I did it! This has got to be the most romantic and magical thing I have ever written! And thanks all to ' Spiders' by system of a down, the song that inspired this whole scene. Thank you so much for reading, I really hope you enjoyed it and review! Please! Btw, this is not the end!


	14. The connection

" Now there is nothing you can do to survive, you have no more opportunities. They have found love in each other, and neither of them will ever bare you an heir. Your finished" The glowing guardian of Knuckles said, joyous as he watched and felt his mortal half experience pure happiness. Beside him, floated the emerald creature, the jewel embedded in his chest flashes with rage with what he witnessed before him. His guardian, smothering himself against the lips of a male, not only that, a hedgehog male, one created by the vile species of man, one with powers to rival his guardian and so it couldn't control him. It was the worst possible match in its own twisted way, and that was probably why the pompous echidna spirit was so pleased about it.

" I ShoUlD slaUGHter TheM BoTH thiS MomENT". The echidna looked at him with a smug face and said in a challenging voice

" Then why don't you?". The emerald remained silent for almost a minute, seeming not to want to answer and staying completely still. Then finally, it replied with a vague

" I NEEd My guaRdIan". The twin scoffed, then said

" Your guardian? He abandoned you ages ago, face it, your through. You've got nothing left". This time the emerald took even longer to answer. But when he did, what he said pleased the clone, so much so he couldn't help but grin.

" I StiLL HaVE pOweRS oVER hIm". The twin raised an scripted eyebrow, then turned to face the emerald, who still had it's eyes locked onto the two creatures.

" What are you thinking?" He said with put on suspicion. The emerald didn't look at him, but it's liquid body flashed and buzzed with power, indicating it was thinking hard. The twin knew this, his own knowledge of the emerald screeched far further than Knuckles own. And in his mind he knew his plan was going exactly to plan. The emerald foolishness was exactly as was expected, and soon the motions of the future would fall into place, just as he had predicted.

The twin was ready to press the emerald for answer, one he knew it wouldn't give. But just as he opened his mouth to talk, the emerald and it's mutated, twisted body vanished with one flash of the jewels green light. The twin watched as the two courting creatures began to leave, as the sun began to rise. The twin smiled and removed the hue he had been holding over the water, let the shadow under the willow tree return to it's original, not to hiding, shade and let the noise of the city flood back in. Delighted with a job well done, he too vanished, leaving to complete the work that still needed to be seen to.

Meanwhile , Shadow and Knuckles has made their way back to Shadows house, surprisingly shy around each other. Knuckles was suddenly aware of just what going to Shadows meant, and it frightened him and excited him at the same time. He felt utterly lost in whirlwind of events and feelings, all of it sweeping past in huge, graceful bounds. He felt blown away by it all, the speed of all of it. But, unlike with Rouge, it felt natural, it felt right.

On the way there, they hadn't said a word. They avoided each others eyes, but kept sneaking in occasional glances. A few times they would do this simultaneously and catch each others eyes. When this happened, one of them would let out an embarrassed smile without thinking about it, which caused the other to do the same. Then, both would swiftly turn away so to avoid the other seeing the blush appearing on their face. One or twice the back of their hands would touch. The resulting tingle would send a deep feeling into activation in the pits of their stomachs. Both were relieved, and petrified, to get to their destination.

Shadow finally managed to prise the door open. His hands had shook while he tried to work his keys and they wouldn't be persuaded into the lock first of all. Both of them went to go through, their shoulders wedging in the door frame. The resulting struggle ended in the two of the bursting in, almost falling and only steadying themselves by clutching each others chest and shoulder for support. It was like a strange hug. One that caused a flush on both of their faces, one which neither of them could hide being face to face. Knuckles just looked away in humiliation, but Shadow smirked and said in a warm and welcoming voice

" You've got something there, Knuckles" he said, reaching up and running his hand over Knuckles reddened cheek. The echidnas eyes opened wide in surprise and his breath came in uncontrollable shudders. But then couldn't resist a nervous grin back. The hedgehog, looking calmer than he felt, untangled himself from Knuckles, which the echidna was grateful for, as he wasn't sure he could do it himself. Knuckles swallowed as the hedgehog stood in front of him, his eyes boring into Knuckles soul. Those powerful, dangerous, burning eyes of scarlet.

Knuckles was feeling an incredible attraction towards him, even though he had never considered himself as gay before. But there was something about Shadow that made him fall for him. It wasn't that Shadow was feminine, far from it. He was simply, graceful, something Knuckles never would be. Rouge took her attraction from her big curves, which were forceful and in your face, just like her personality. But Shadows features were intricate, almost hidden beneath his black fur. Perhaps that was why he had never noticed how handsome he was before, he hadn't taken the time too look. It looked as if you could just watch and observe him for hours and not fully understand his physic. Perhaps that was a feature of his design, so his enemies weren't aware of his true power. Whatever it was, Knuckles liked it. Shadow, to him, was almost like a demigod. At first, he thought Shadows fur didn't bristle like some hedgehogs did when they were frightened, nervous or apprehensive. But, now, he began to notice it wavering slightly, especially around his face. It was entrancing, almost as if Shadow was becoming liquid again, ready to melt back into the darkness. " Make yourself at home" Shadow said, startling Knuckles out of his little trance. " I'm going to a shower" he finished, then hesitated for a second, before leaning forward in a fluid movement and planting a kiss apon Knuckles check, withdrawing just as quickly, his face burning and his lips smiling and grinning. Knuckles felt pleased at the tingling sensation that stayed in the spot Shadow had graced with a kiss and touched it with his paw, his fingers running down his cheek just as Shadow had done.

When Knuckles regained enough control over himself, he managed to make his way over to the couch and take a seat. After observing the room with vague interest, his thoughts drifted back to the last night, back to the drunken kiss he still remembered. He wondered what he was doing here, what Shadow really had in mind. He was the most aggressive of the two so far, and he wondered what advances he dared make on him. After all, their time together was virtually non-existence. He didn't want to ruin it before it began. Besides, there was no rush. Knuckles didn't have any responsibilities to take care of, so he could give his full attention to this strange and fledgling relationship.

" Having fun?" A voice said inside of his head, one he was fast becoming used to hearing. Although he was innicially disappointed that he was still hearing the voice of his twin, he still managed to ask

" Is this what you meant? When you said that my true love will soon arrive?" . It was odd sounding, describing Shadow as liking him, let alone loving him, but Knuckles had to know that he doing the right thing and through that if he could trust his own instincts. His twin smiled and said

" I'll not say. If I did, I could effect what happens in the future. But I do have something to give you". Knuckles raised an eyebrow, wondering what a hallucination form his own mind could possibly 'give' him anyway.

" Give? How can you possibly give me anything?" he said, perhaps a little more rudely than he had meant to. But this didn't faze his clone, who appeared from the air in front of him, glowing with his aura of emerald energy, smiling with obvious glee. Knuckles leant back on the sofa, a little off put by the clones closeness to him, but otherwise relaxed. By now he knew that this strange version of himself never did any harm to him, even if it had meant too. But when the twin leant forward and grasped Knuckles head in his palms tightly, Knuckles felt a wave of announce and panic flow through him. " What are you doing?" He asked through a struggled voice, his jaw restricted. The face in front of him smiled the most troubling smile Knuckles had ever seen it manage and replied in a voice that sounded as if he had succeeded in his own high set goals

" Why, I'm giving you your gift. Trust me... .you'll thank me after..." It said in a glee filled voice, not necessarily evil, but certainly suspiciously pleased.

" After what!" Knuckles managed to cry as just before a wave of feeling rushed through his body from the clones connecting hands. It caught him by surprise and rendered him unable to ask any more questions when the clone replied

" After the connection" it hummed, then vanished from Knuckles sight. The echidna sat, stunned for a few seconds, wondering what on earth he had meant. Then, so suddenly Knuckles let out an involuntary squeak, some thing struck through him, passing as fast as a super charged thunderbolt. But it wasn't that which he felt the most, it was it's after effects...

It was like a burst of adrenaline had been realised into him. It set alight every single one of his senses and gave every nerve in his body and buzz that made his muscles jerk with wishes for movement. Then, came the final and most pleasing feeling. Over the top of the boast of almost hyper energy that sizzled and burned through him, was an explosion of yearning. It drove back almost every sensible thought and bought forward one drifting thought that had been floating around his mind and blew it out of total proportion. Shadow.

It was perhaps unlucky then, that the hedgehog choose that exact moment to emerge from the shower, his fur sleeked down with water. Knuckles, in his seemingly drugged up state, felt his breath trap in his throat, his eyes fixed on Shadow. Of course, the hedgehog spotted him and tipped his head to the side a little, as if to question Knuckles on his odd behaviour.

But, in Knuckles blurred mind, that tiny movement was like a trigger to realise all that stocked up energy that had suddenly presented itself in his body. With one strong and swift movement, Knuckles leapt off the sofa, well over a meter across the room, and straight on top of Shadow, knocking the hedgehog to the floor. The breath knocked out of him, Shadow didn't have the strength to throw Knuckles off.

" What are you doing!" He asked in confusion and panic. Knuckles didn't answer and silenced any further questions by clamping his mouth over Shadows. The black one started to struggle, but at the feel of other animal against him, something caused the resistance in his mind and body to break down and allow Knuckles to carry on. His body softened, the tension let go as he replied to Knuckles kissing. The echidna kicked away the towel around Shadows waist and took his mouth away from Shadows. The hedgehog was about to protest about the loss of the other animals contact, but his objections were ceased when he felt something hot and wet enter his ear. He actually laughed at the feeling of Knuckles tongue inside of him and in turn started to massage Knuckles chest with his hands, feeling deep into Knuckles muscle crevices hidden beneath the red fur. He felt them react to his touch, spasm as they yearned for more contact. Shadow obliged by arching his back so that their chests touched, rubbed and worked against each other. Knuckles hands were tracing there way down Shadows back spines. The echidna ran his finger briefly down Shadows neck, then his hand made its way down to the bottom of Shadow back, urging the hedgehog closer to himself. There was no thought on either side now, just the increase in desire for pleasure, something which each tried there hardest to give the other and themselves. Knuckles tongue drifted out of Shadow's ear and left a trail of liquid on its way to his neck, which he bite, hard. Shadow cried out at the strange mixture of pain and pleasure that radiated from his face and particularly his neck, which Knuckles fangs drew blood, which he lapped up as it emerged. Both animal breathing was heaving now, as the set movements had began to play themselves out in their bodies as their chests connected harder and harder.

But something was wrong. Shadow realised that he was being completely controlled by Knuckles. He didn't like being controlled. As Knuckles bit another hole in his neck, Shadow thrust Knuckles of his stomach, throwing the animal to his own back on the floor. Knuckles looked stunned for a second and didn't react as Shadow clambered on top of him. The hedgehog was still smiling his cool, sexy smile, one which, at this time, drove Knuckles crazy. But Shadow never liked things slow and so, with incredible swiftness and accuracy, straddled himself into position and thrust quickly into Knuckles body, burying himself deeply but just as quickly exciting. He repeated the movement, going just as swiftly and on occasion, even faster. Virtually paralysed with pleasure, Knuckles had no choice but to wait and let Shadow grind into him, hammering him with such powerful blows that he was sure something would tear, but he didn't care. The utter volume of pleasure that this movement caused blocked out and destroyed any pain that Knuckles may have felt and the only reaction that he could manage was a jerk of his hips with Shadows trusts. His brain was dead, thoughts frozen and overcome by the sheer degree of animal instinct that swelled through him. But, just as he thought the pleasure had overflowed and stemmed in its multitude, he felt something awash inside of him, the utter heat and power of it's entrance caused Knuckles to peak on his own, spraying Shadows heaving chest in the process. The liquid seemed to heal the his aching insides from where they had been so viciously attacked. Knuckles fur bristled and spiked as the last of his adrenaline washed away and his breath was taken once again when Shadow feel on top of him, exhaustion taking over him as well. They caught each others drooping eyes and smiled, Knuckles moving his head so it snuggled into Shadows patch of white, fluffy, fur and Shadow ran his hand halfway through Knuckles dreadlocks. And it was there that they lay, asleep, having connected on a whole new level.

But in the most distant corner of his mind, Knuckles felt a tiny explosion of evil joy. Asleep, it went unnoticed and he didn't know that the emerald was laughing, harder than it had ever done, laughing in triumph, laughing at the success of it's schemes.

Authors notes

Omg, my second lemon, if that is the correct term! I made that one a little shorterm tried to make it less repetative too and tried to vary it, although it obviosly had to be different on some levels... smirk. Also, before you say anything, I just wanna mention I'm neither a boy nor am I gay, so any thing you see here is ideas that ive come from reading other peoples scenes like this, so if I got it wrong, I'm sorry, but I'm just taking others words for it. Also, it may be a little short and rushed, but thats because I'm going on holiday soon and wanted to get it up before I went. Review please! I worked hard on this!


	15. Trust him to spoil the moment

The faint shine of the sun through his eyes lids was the first thing Knuckles saw as he woke up. The weak rays indicated that the day was at an end. The two had slept through it .

Tacking a breath in, Knuckles nostrils were filled with a curious smell. He opened his eyes to their normal width and found a plane of black set out in front of them. The smell that caught his nose was Shadows scent. He smiled as he remembered the feast of pleasure both of them shared. Lifting his head, he saw Shadows sleeping face, so calm and peaceful, his mouth closed and breaths coming in smooth, slow blows. Even in sleep, he was regal and magnificent looking. Knuckles smiled, looking at the face he knew so well yet hardly knew at all. There was nothing besides and name and a few details that Knuckles knew about him, but he wanted to know, very much so. When he felt Shadows hand twitch in his dreads, he figured Shadow was waking.

He was right, the hedgehogs eyes slowly opened and focussed up on the ceiling, his startling, piercing red eyes reflecting brightly and beautifully. Knuckles stared into them, waiting for a response. The hedgehog seemed almost not to notice him as he sat up, unweaved his hands from the echidnas dreadlocks and looked around the room with wide, violet eyes.

" Hey" Knuckles said, sitting up as well. Around Shadow, he felt a little clumsy, his chunky movements somewhat superseded by Shadows grace.

Shadow frowned, seemingly confused at his surroundings. Knuckles tilted his head in questioning, wondering what was wrong with Shadow. The hedgehogs powerful eyes locked onto him and he immediately felt his heart skip, panic ridden and rejoiced.

" You forced me" he said in his dark voice, one which could represent that of an angel or devil from the deepest place in hell. Knuckles leaned back, intent on backing away. He felt worried at Shadows seemingly hostileness towards him. After there connection, he assumed he was would be overjoyed.

" I ...um..." He said, lost for words in Shadows overwhelming presence. The hedgehog continued to stare, unblinking and intimidating for a few seconds, before his mouth tugged into a little smile.

" Thank you" he said calmly and with somewhat of a warm voice, probably all that he could really manage. Knuckles eyes shot open in disbelief, thinking he was in trouble and not at all expecting an apology. His mouth hung open for a while, not knowing what to say, while Shadow stared, waiting for an answer, his smile still present. His breath caught in his throat, Knuckles took a while to say his petty excuse

" I don't know what got into me" he said, still nervous, still excited. The jumble of opposite emotions was turning his mind into somewhat of an oxymoron. " I'm sorry" he added at the end, hoping that would improve the situation. But Shadow's smile disappeared after that and Knuckles couldn't think of what he had done wrong. The hedgehog shook his head slightly, closing his eyes and opening them again in a way which seemed to show his ancient wisdom. Knuckles mouth flopped open as he stared at the beautiful hedgehog.

" No. No apologising. You have done me a favour Knuckles" he said in his calming voice, so wise. The red animals fear washed away at that point, looking deep into Shadows eyes that struck away his hesitance. The approval of his actions from Shadow was all he needed to feel peace. Shadows own face so calm, so still and so mysteriously elegant, Knuckles wasn't sure why he was nervous at all. Shadow was obviously perfect in everyday. Around him, he felt a little undeserving.

But a sudden knocking on the door echoing through the nearly empty apartment and, accompanied by a loud and annoying voice, wiped Shadows calm expression and replaced it with one of deep annoyance and brimming anger.

" Hey Shad! Shadow! You there?" The voice called, slamming his fist into the door over and over.

" Oh great, what's he want!" Shadow hissed to himself, starting to get up to answer the door and let the creature in that was still repeated knocking at the door, yelling for attention. Knuckles meanwhile, froze, and flushed with embarrassment, recognising the voice that belonged to the man who he had originally been looking for when leaving angel island. He touched his cheek and found them red hot, burning through his gloves, but, beyond that, he was far to gone with embarrassment to do anything else.

The person at the door, obviously far to impatient to wait another few seconds, smashed the door open with a speedy charge and gushed into the living room, skidding to a halt right in front of Knuckles and Shadow, who was still half straddled across Knuckles.

There was silence. Shadow froze, Knuckles froze, Sonic froze. No-one made a movement to undo any positions or explain why they were in them in the first place. His eyes wide, Sonic scanned the two, his eyes rolling other each of the two but his mouth stating no conclusion. Knuckles felt a sudden creation of anger rise up for the hedgehog for disturbing his private time with Shadow. But, instead of voicing this aloud to the hedgehog, he turned to Shadow and moaned

" Why the hell does Sonic know where you live?". Shadow shot him a short warning glance but said nothing, as if to scold Knuckles on blaming him for Sonic's untimely arrival. Meanwhile, Sonic, with his mouth still hanging open, raised one of his arms and scratched his head, still trying to think of what to say. His eyes travelled to Shadow's neck and he spotted to two marks, quite obviously passionate bites. Finally, he managed to say

" Have you two been fighting?". Knuckles jaw dropped.

" How the hell did you come up with that!" He accidentally let slip loudly, smothering his mouth with his two giant hands afterwards. Sonic raised an eyebrow, dropped his hand and spoke again, with an almost child like naivety

" Well, your all on-top of each other like you've been wrestling. Plus Shadows got a chunk bitten out of his neck. That must have been some fight. What did you do to piss each other off so badly?" Sonic asked, questions streaming from him so fast Knuckles couldn't remember them all. Luckily, Shadow seemed to have a better solution to Sonic's curiosity.

" How about you shut up and answer my question. Why are you here?" He said rudely, menace creeping up into his voice. Sonic didn't seem to catch it and simply scratched his head again, answering

" Jeez! Someone's a strop arse. I came coz Tails wanted the thing that works machines. Tube things ...um..."

" Batteries?" Knuckles suggested, agitated. He had calmed a little, now the black hedgehog and echidna had managed to separate themselves and got off of the floor.

" Yeah that's um" Sonic said and started fiddling round with his gloves. " Why were you two on the floor again?".

" Why did you come to me for them?" Shadow said coldly, trying to make it as obvious as he could without booting the hedgehog directly out that he was not welcome and ignoring his embarrassing question. Sonic jumped a little at his tone, then replied innocently

" Can't I visit my friends once in a while?. Shadow glared at him.

" We're not friends" he said coldly. Sonic looked a little put off and insulted and was about to ask what had changed. But he stopped. Something in his mind clicked, something that seemed so utterly unlikely that he just hadn't thought of before. But it explained the bites, why Knuckles was in Shadows apartment in the first place and why they were half straddled across each other on the floor. His conclusion exploded his mind into a frenzy of disbelief and shock, so much so he lost his ability to contain himself and so burst out in a shouting voice

" You two had sex!" He screamed, shattering the temporary silence and the two creatures cool. Both let loose a huge, red, flush across there cheeks. Shadow stared at the floor, avoiding Sonic's eyes at all cost, while Knuckles jumped in panic at the word ' sex' and promptly covered his face again. Sonic's eyes went wide as he watched the two's reactions and from them, realised that he was correct. That was all he needed, he simply couldn't hold it in any more. He knew it was wrong, but he really couldn't help it. He burst out laughing.

" You! And ...Knuckles! Your gay! Ahha ha ha ha!" He managed to say, before the giggling took over his speech capacity and he feel on the floor, laughing in irritating, repeating giggles, his eyes tight closed. The shock slowly wore away from Knuckles and his anger was able to replace it, bubbling up to it's highest possible levels, equal to when he had thrown Rouge against the wall, almost knocking her out.

He stormed over to Sonic, picked up the wriggling teenager but the scruff of his neck and bought his face close to his own. Sonic opened his eyes and found him directly staring into Knuckles blaring, violent, violet orbs. He gulped.

" You" Knuckles spat, in a dark, threatening voice " Will not speak a single word of this to anyone ever again. Not even us. If you do, I'm going to take you unused spuds down there and pin them to a wall! With you attached! Do you understand?" He finished. Sonic, not trusting his voice at that moment, nodded feebly. Knuckles sighed, sliding his eyes closed just a little more, then dropped Sonic on the floor like a bag of bones. Sonic giddily got to his feet and started walking to the door slowly and carefully, as if any sudden movement would cause the wild animal that was Knuckles to delve into further acts of violence against him. Knuckles didn't take his eyes off Sonic for once second as he inched towards the door, while the hedgehog tried to avoid Knuckles eyes at all costs. Finally, the blue annoyance opened the door and slowly left, closing the door as quietly and slowly as possibly it seemed.

When he was gone, Knuckles sighed and slouched his shoulders, turning to Shadow and looking at him with a look of worry. Shadow looked back at him with a calmer look, as if he knew and trusted Sonic. Unfortunately, Knuckles didn't share the same trust.

Suddenly, the door opened again and Sonic peeped his head through again. Knuckles eyes widened with rage and he snapped back round too face the hedgehog again. Sonic beamed at him and asked as if the previous situation had never happened.

" Do you have any batteries?" He asked innocently. Knuckles raged.

" FUCK OFF" he exploded. Sonic squeaked in shock and his head zipped out from the side of the door again, gone for good this time. Knuckles growled and flopped down on the sofa, leaning his head back in a seemingly tired manner. " You think he'll tell?" Knuckles asked hopefully. Shadow sat beside him and stared at the wall.

" I doubt it".

Meanwhile, after finally taking some batteries from Egg mans floating egg-walker, Sonic made his usual entrance to Tails house. That was, appearing in a blur of legs and blue flashes.

" Hey Tails, you'll never guess what. Knuckles and Shadow slept together"

Authors notes

Yes, i've been on holiday, as you know. I decided to do a more humerous chapter this time to have a break from all the heavy romance and tension. Keep those reviews coming and feel free to tell me you guesses on what you think might happan and any suggestions you might have!


	16. Alligations enrage him

The days passed, slowly but not laboriously. Knuckles stayed with Shadow in his apartment, but, despite the fact that it only had one bedroom and Knuckles and Shadow had slept together, they didn't share a bed. This was fine with both of them. Knuckles, being a loner for most of his life, preferred not to be close to people for too long in a day. Even with Rouge, when they would frequently perform sexual acts, she would be out most of the day, leaving him to himself, which had been a surprisingly pleasant experience for him.

Shadow too, preferred to not be around the echidna too often. Although he felt deep down, something growing inside him which he could only really think of as an adoration for the other male, he had never been the creature to get too close, preferring to show his love in his own little way. Luckily, Knuckles seemed to be able to catch these signs and reply to them with slight gestures himself, like a strong, lopsided grin. He still felt a little graceless around Shadow. But the hedgehog himself noticed this and decided he'd better get an explanation for Knuckles behaviour, he felt that he had done wrong.

Knuckles was out at that exact moment, gone off wondering somewhere, Shadow wasn't sure and he didn't care either. He didn't view partnership as a leash over the other creature. That was the problem with all the other couples in his opinion, once you were paired, there was no freedom. That was one of the things that Shadow cherished above all else was his freedom and with Rouge, that had been struck away from him.

It was noon when Shadow left the house to look for the echidna. He felt a twinge of loneliness deep inside his seemingly emotionless mind and knew that Knuckles company would calm that disturbance. After locking the door and shoving his shoulder into it after to make sure it was properly secure, he set of into a horizontal cyclone of speed, having to slow down occasionally to allow his eyes to catch up with the surroundings. As he travelled, occasionally up turning light objects that were either side of his path, he caught the stares of people going about there business. He ignored them. He was far too used to getting the attention of passers by simply because of his historic and dark nature. Although that day there seemed to be a small increase in the fascinated eyes that caught onto him, as well as the occasional whisper, he ignored it as usual. His goal was to find Knuckles and those idiot humans were not going to distract him.

That was, until one of the idiot humans proved Shadows view of them by jumping in front of the speeding hedgehog. Shadow barely noticed in time and skidded to a halt in front of him, barely a meter distance between the two. Behind Shadow, two large, ugly, black skid marks steamed on the pavement.

" Hey! Your that Shadow hedgehog aren't you?" The man said in gleeful incompetence, clearly not bothered about that fact that he was almost run over by the animal which he would usually run over himself. Shadow stared at him in a irritated way and folded his arms.

" What gave it away?" Shadow said sarcastically. He didn't have the patience for this human, especially with the crowd of wide eyes gathering around him while he was stationary. The man grinned at what he thought was a joke and replied eagerly

" Well I've seen you on the news! You wouldn't be looking for that handsome young echidna fella would you?". This caught Shadows attention. He raised an eyebrow and lowered his other eyelid.

" I might be. What's it to you?" He said, trying to be a little less rude this time as he had a feeling this man was going to help him. The man grinned goofily at his answer and said excitedly

" I saw him pass by a few minuets ago, he went over there" said the man happily, pointing to indicate Knuckles destination. Shadows eyes followed his hand and he smiled when he recognised to where the man pointed. It was the road that led to that seemingly enchanted glade. Shadows felt his heart warm at the memory of that kiss. He turned back to the eager male and said with as much gratitude as he could muster

" Thank you human" and he turned to go. The man laughed goofily and said in an excited voice

" No problem Shadow! Don't want you to be missing some times with your echidna!" Was the last thing Shadow heard before he sped off again. What the man said made him wonder just what the man meant and, if it was what he thought it was, how did he know in the first place?

Knuckles couldn't resist staying away from the glad any longer than he had done for the last few weeks. Early in the morning, he set of to find it, but it had taken him until past midday, it was so isolated. His smile was impossible to hide as he leant over the bridge, staring out into the water, which had some how lost it's spiritual sparkle. But it wasn't the location which made this place special, it was the event, the moment that him and Shadow had connected. It certainly was special, it drifted in is dreams at night, was on his mind for at least an hour a day. Knuckles certainly felt more suited to Shadow that Rouge, to say the least. To say the most, he would say that he felt a possibility of love in his heart for the hedgehog, but, he was so perfect and Knuckles so flawed, he felt that Shadow would never accept him.

Then, as if he very thoughts summoned the creature, Shadow skidded round the corner, sliding up to him gracefully and stopping at his side. He did no more, but then, Knuckles didn't expect a gesture of love from him, the most secretive of creatures.

" Hello Knuckles" he said coolly, his eyes fixed at the tree and river, watching them and wondering where it's beautiful, enchanting hue had vanished to.

" Hey Shadow" Knuckles replied, glad his partner of sorts had taken the time to visit him that day. For a few moments there was silence, but peaceful silence, not hard or uncomfortable. It felt right to just stand there with each other and enjoy the calm. But then Shadow remembered what he had ventured out for, apart from to spend time with Knuckles of course.

" Knuckles. I wanted to talk with you" he began. Knuckles turned to view him with slight curiosity.

" Oh yeah? What is it?" He said, and shuffled his feet a little. Shadow stared at him with his hard, red eyes. Those drilling eyes that seemed to weave there way right into Knuckles soul. The echidna shivered,

" I feel like you are holding back around me, as if there's something wrong with me, the way I act. Am I right?" Shadow said, turning his gaze away from the echidna again. Knuckles felt as if Shadow had read his mind and was shocked. But relieved to, for he wouldn't have to break the ice to Shadow about his inadequacy.

" You are" Knuckles said, his voice serious. Shadow nodded and turned his full attention back to him. The echidna took a breath and decided now was a good time to explain it all to him. " I feel" he began " Like around you, I'm second class. Like I'm a big, blundering thing next to you. You move so smoothly and..." He paused and blushed " well... your so elegant and beautiful, I feel I don't deserve you". Shadow considered this, but felt that he moved with no more grace than any other animal. He felt he had to show Knuckles that he did care for him and so decided to move his hand next to his, taking hold of it in his own. Knuckles smiled at a rare display of affection and willingly let Shadow take his other one. A blush reappeared on his cheeks as Shadow smiled at him with warm intent. He took one of Knuckles hands and allowed it to slide down his own cheek, then did the same with his own hand to Knuckles cheek.

" Don't feel like this Knuckles. If you didn't deserve me, then you wouldn't have me. Besides, not all beauty is in the flesh" said Shadow wisely, reflecting his age. Again Knuckles felt overwhelmed, but decided that if Shadows word had said he was accepted, then he would be satisfied with that. Shadow smiled again " Come here", he commanded softly. Knuckles obeyed gladly as Shadow pulled him closer. There chests touched. Shadow ran his hands up and down Knuckles arms. Knuckles grinned, feeling content again, while Shadow felt that twinge of warmth set alight again deep inside him. Both hardly noticed how close there faces were. It was a perfect moment, if Knuckles eyes hadn't rolled in his head and his eyelids closed. Shadow took this as a move for a kiss and leant forward himself. Their lips touched, but only for a moment. It didn't take Shadow long to realise something was wrong, as instead of kissing back Knuckles lips slid off of his and the echidna lounged on Shadows shoulder.

After a few seconds of shaking and calling, Shadow realised Knuckles had blacked out.

" Knuckles? Knuckles!" He called frantically, trying to wake the echidna who, up until that point, had been fine. After a few seconds of clue less and ineffective shacking and calling, Knuckles eyes slid open again. " Your all right" Shadow said with gratitude. Knuckles grinned up at him, but then realised his entire weight was being supported by Shadow and as far as he could tell, there appeared to by a small gap in his memory.

" Wha..?" Was his only response and question that he could come up with in that particular situation. Fortunately, Shadow seemed to be able to figure out the specifics of his question which he didn't manage to get out.

" You blacked out for a few seconds. I caught you. But your fine now" he explained, filling the blackened gap in the Knuckles memory road. Knuckles thought for a second, then managed to come up with a slightly clearer and better thought out reply than last time.

" That don't make sense. I didn't feel dizzy and I've been eating loads recently" he said, his eye ridges dropped a little to show his confusion.

" It's not particularly hot either" Shadow added, feeling that was the only other reasonable reason for Knuckles to suddenly pass out, yet why he so quickly recovered was more of a mystery.

Knuckles frowned, but felt he had better find his feet soon, otherwise Shadow may drop him amusingly. He put them under him and was relieved the find that he supported with weight without huge effort, providing no explanation as to why they couldn't before. " Your fine now" Shadow said, as more of a question than a statement. Knuckles nodded his head shakily. Shadow smiled slightly, though he was still worried about his mate, he did his best not to show it. " Shall we leave then? You should rest" he suggested and again Knuckles nodded, swallowing as he did so and letting go of the wall of the bridge that he had been hanging onto for support. He took his first few steps and found them easy. Shadow nodded and turned, ready to lead the way back to his dwelling. However, instead of finding his way clear and nothing but air to walk through, he found himself coming face to face with a microphone and the annoyingly, fake smiling faces of two dozen reporters.

" Mr Shadow and Mr Knuckles! We wonder if you could answer some questions for us?" The one nearest to him chimed. He didn't reply, he was in shock, wondering just where they had come from and why he hadn't sensed for heard them approach. He growled and realised it was probably his total focus concern for Knuckles which had done it and now he had to deal with these annoyances. His mate didn't look in the best shape to be dragged by the arm through the city as sound barrier breaking speeds, so he thought it best to try to be polite and talk his way out of the living barrier of news reporters.

" It depends what you want to ask us" he replied, trying not to allow his voice to become angered.

" We want to know if Knuckles was really cheating on Rouge with you" the first one said. Seconds later another urged the question

" What are Knuckles views on Rouge's pregnancy?". From the back, one shouted

" Are you having second thoughts about your actions?"

" What prompted you to cause her such pain?"

" Are you two going to be married?"

" How long have you two been secretly seeing each other?"

" Whe-...

" QUITE!" Shadow finally ordered and caused a brief cease in the fast flowing river of questions the reporters had been throwing at them. He took a quick glance at Knuckles behind him, who was steaming, his fur prickled, his eyes brazing, his canines bared in a scowl and his fist clenched tight. Shadow recognised the signs of a pre-explosion of rage and immediately grasped Knuckles wrist and took off in a bellow of flying dusk and flying water from the river. He didn't care if Knuckles wasn't at his best, a moment later and he would have ended up a lot worse. And Shadow knew why, Sonic had blabbed. How else would those ravenous news crews know of their pairing? The other thing that caught his mind was that the news crews had mentioned that Rouge was pregnant. A twinge of dread jolted through him at this news, knowing it could be either of there babies and, knowing Rouge, she could take this opportunity to land the two of them in a whole lot of trouble as revenge for there little visit to her house a month ago.

Shadow regretted that he would have to admit to Knuckles that he remembered this unfortunate thoughtless situation, but he knew not talking it through with him would be much worse.

Apon arriving at his home, Shadow barely had time to get the door open before Knuckles smashed it down. He raged around the room, talking incomprehensible nonsense. Shadow tried to calm him and, quickly it worked. However, instead of recovering to a stable emotional state, Knuckles went the other way. His cheeks flushed and his eyes lowered. He became clearly nervous, upset, even scared of Shadow's presence.

" I meant to tell you... i meant to...i just...you've got to understand Shadow! It hurt! What she did was such a blow to me..." He stuttered, smothering his face with his hands and making his words harder to hear, " I wanted to bury it and never think about it again" he explained unsteadily. Shadow nodded and made him sit, taking the distraught echidna in his arms, gently shushing him. Knuckles began to sob gently.

" Tell me ...what did she do?" Shadow urged, hoping that simply telling the tale wouldn't set Knuckles off into this deep pit of pain that he had obviously experienced all over again. He squeezed Knuckles hand for support.

" No..." Knuckles pleaded, his voice weak and unsteady, threatening to break. Shadow gripped him a little tighter and securer and said

" If you trap it inside of you, it's only going to grow stronger, and destroy you from the inside. Trust me, I know, I've been there" Shadow explained, referring to the ark. The echidna shuddered like a child in his arms and answered only after a few minuets of soothing silence.

" I...she..." He sniffed, steadied himself, then continued " We were dew to have a baby. I was so happy.. .i felt whole...but...she..." He shuddered again, his voice growing deeper " But she killed it". This time, his shiver was through rage.

" You should have told me sooner" Shadow said, surprised, but not showing it. He knew that if Rouge ever did that to him, he would be distraught. He now knew where the news casters questions came from, at least the ones originating from Rouges pregnancy. " If Rouge ever told me we were expecting a child, then wiped out of existence before it even had a change, I would have fallen apart". Knuckles eyes were shiny with tears.

" I did, but there was a difference, she never told me, I found out myself...". Shadows eyes widened and he shook his head in disbelief.

" You mean she didn't even tell you about the child before getting rid of it?" He asked, in disgusted curiosity. Knuckles nodded bitterly, hanging his head as his mind flooded with putrid thoughts. Shadow nudged him affectionately with his head to try and break Knuckles moody but well deserved silence. The echidna looked up with reddened eyes in questioning to Shadows urging, as if to ask what the hedgehog wanted. Shadow, judging Knuckles character well, knew that any further talk of Rouge would simply push him further into depression at this point. So, instead, he decided to divert Knuckles attention to something else. " How about we go to Sonic's and ask if he spilled, then punish him if he did" Shadow said, trying to add a little maliciousness to his voice to persuade Knuckles that what would really be a lift to him at that point would be to beat the crap out of Sonic.

Knuckles sniffed , controlled and held back his raging tears, then nodded again. Shadow smiled and kissed him soothingly, then pulled him to his feet softly. Knuckles glance remained firmly secured to the floor, but Shadow hoped being outside would do the echidna some good.

" Of course I kept it a secret!" Sonic claimed in as much as an innocent voice as he could muster standing in front of a demanding ultimate life form and his fuming echidna partner. Knuckles had calmed down considerably during the journey, which had to be cut short by a fresh set of leeching reporters trying to barricade them against a wall for questioning. But, it seemed all that was needed to get him back up to a simmering level of struggling anger was the overly cheerful grin and stupidly confident air of a certain supersonic hedgehog.

Shadow raised an unconvinced eyebrow at Sonic's plea of innocence, showing the blue boy that he wasn't interested in lies and all he wanted was a confession so his recently found out boyfriend could vent his frustration on the far from innocent hedgehog and then everything would be done.

Sonic easily spotted the exact meaning of Shadow's expression and spread his hands guiltily

" Ok! Ok! Ok! I told all right? But only Tails! And you know him, he's as trustworthy as me! Maybe even a little bit more!" He claimed, gesturing to another room where Tails was presumably situated. Shadow frowned and Knuckles took over the allegations.

" Well he obviously isn't as trustworthy as you think! Thanks to your flapping mouth, we've got half the news reporters in the country after us!" He steamed and Sonic looked taken aback by his claim.

" Dammit! I swear Knux, I didn't mean for that to happen! I've known Tails all my life and I was so sure he would keep it to himself" Sonic claimed, again trying his innocent hero act. Knuckles rolled his eyes and barged his way past the hedgehog, Shadow following with the intent to question the fox on just who he had told, so that maybe one day soon he and Knuckles could get to the bottom of this.

The two made there entrances clear by slamming open the door, finding Tails sitting calmly on the floor, his eyes fixated on the TV. With Knuckles mind in a state of total focus, he didn't see the TV screen and what program it was showing, perhaps if he had, he would have realised just what had happened to get the media so interested in the him and Shadow.

" I didn't tell any body" Tails quickly claimed as Knuckles opened his mouth as wide as it would go, ready to shout the house down. Tails quick response caught him of guard and he wasn't able to shout any thing at all, luckily, Shadow was able to take over from him, although he was sure he didn't need shouting to get his point across. Sonic came in last, trying to look cross with Tails but instead achieving a look that said he was rather amused by the whole thing.

" Care to tell us why the media are on our tails then? ...no pun intended" Shadow asked, adding the later bit after feeling foolish for using such a stupid word gimmick. Tails turned around and said in a calm voice that at this moment even beat Shadows normally ice cool domineer

" Just watch the TV" he said simply, then turned his attention back to the program. Silently all three of those addressed turned there eyes to watch the screen, dumbfounded by the foxes obscure answer.

They weren't for long.

To Sonic's shock, Shadows anger and Knuckles utter fury, there was a picture of Rouge, who was being interviewed and looking in a sorry state. She was crying heavily, her makeup was smeared all down her white fur and her clothes were wrinkled where they covered her. Knuckles growled lightly as he heard her words.

" So your saying Knuckles the echidna was abusive towards you?" The voice of the interviewer, unseen from behind the camera, asked. Rouge nodded weakly, then spoke with a voice that a little too viscous for someone who seemed so upset.

" Abusive, mental even. He was locked up once because he threw me against the wall and broke my arm and smashed my face in, but I still found the kindness in me to help him with his problems. I took him back in, but he kept hitting me again and again. He repeatedly asked for sex and, when I said I wasn't ready, he would explode and savagely punch and kick me, sometimes he bit me too. Then, once I finally agreed to have sex, I had no choice, I feared if I kept saying no he would kill me, he managed to get me pregnant. I told him, hoping that this would finally stop his abusive nature towards me. But it didn't, it made it worse". Rouge paused, cried a little more. After a comforting hand steadied her she managed to continue. " He threw me across the room and broke my hand, and wing, then made me swear I would get rid of our child. I told him I loved him and would raise it on my own but he wouldn't listen. He made me swear not to tell any of this to any body. Then, I found out he had been cheating on me, with an ex of mine, Shadow. It was the final blow and...and I had to tell somebody ...i just hope ...i just hope he gets to be behind bars where he belongs and that i'll be safe...safe from him..." She finished, then proceeded to break down again, sobbing into her hands. The screen changed and a number came up on the screen, a voice announcing that

" Knuckles the echidna is wanted for charges on aggravated assault, attempted murder and rape. If you see or have any information on his whereabouts or that of Shadow the hedgehog, please contact us on this number..."

There was silence in the room. Every face wearing a difference expression. Tails was one of worry, his eyebrows raised in sympathy, for he could clearly see through Rouge's fake crying. Sonic's was one of disbelief, for he had never seen Rouge so emotionally unstable and wondered if what had been said about Knuckles was actually true. Shadow felt angry at the allegations against Knuckles, as well as his link to the echidna's supposed crimes. Knuckles, on the other hand, felt a hot, white, burning fury rise up inside him, his broken heart riving in pain.

Authors notes

For something that was just done as a joke, it hasn't half helped the story along. The last chapter wasn't actually planned, just an add on that I thought was funny. Anyway, I'm sorry again for the updated, I know this probably sounds like an excuse but its not. I got conjunctavitus for staying on the pc too long and so, I couldn't go on the pc for a few days running. Im sorry for the delay and an update to Robotnics discovery is coming along soon.

You guys who review are the best! Please! If you read this, reveiw it!

Extra authors notes

Tails reminds me of the little boy in the matrix who bends the spoon in this chapter

, I have no clue why.


End file.
